Check Word Tools|Options|General|"COnfirm conversion at open", reconnect to
your data source, and choose the DDE option when it is offered.

This occurs because when the data types in an Excel column are mixed (e.g.
some things look like numbers and some things look like text), the OLEDB
provider that Word uses to get the data makes a choice based on which data
type predominates in the first 25 rows of the column. So even if it worked
before, changes to the data can change the behaviour. There are one or two
other approaches that may help, but the DDE one is generally the best
starting point.

Peter Jamieson