Why does time show up in date merge field instead of a blank?

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jerez718 - 09 May 2008 21:09 GMT

I am creating a mail merge into Word 2003 with data from Excel 2003. Several
columns of data are date fields with several that are blank. When I complete
the merge, the records that have blank date fields show up in my merged
document as 12:00:00AM. How do I prevent this from happening?

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Graham Mayor - 10 May 2008 06:22 GMT

You would need to trap the error with a conditional field e.g.

{IF {Mergefield DatefieldName} <> "12:00:00AM" "{Mergefield DatefieldName}"}

Make sure you enter the time *exactly* as it currently appears in your
merge, though
{IF {Mergefield DatefieldName} <> "12:00*" "{Mergefield DatefieldName}"}
should work.

Alternatively you could use the less reliable DDE method - From the Tools
menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab and check the
box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. (In Word 2007 it is
Office Button > Word Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file format
conversion on open). Then when you attach the data source to the mail merge
main document, you will be given the option of using the DDE method of
connection which should read the data as you have it formatted in the table.

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> I am creating a mail merge into Word 2003 with data from Excel 2003.
> Several columns of data are date fields with several that are blank.
> When I complete the merge, the records that have blank date fields
> show up in my merged document as 12:00:00AM. How do I prevent this
> from happening?

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