What are your name fields called? Word has to guess which fields contain the
names you want to use, and recognises certain field names but not others. SO
if you use the field name "Name", Word may not know where to get the data to
put in the Greeting line. So when you insert your greeting line, use the
Match fields button to tell Word what the appropriate field names in your
document are.

Another way to do this is to use individual nested fields - you can create
these using ctrl-F9 to insert each pair of {} and alt-f9 to toggle between
"codes" and "results" view. If you just have one field called "mynamefield"
with the name you want to use, you would probably need something like

{ IF "{ MERGEFIELD mynamefield }" = ""
"To whom it may concern"
"Dear { MERGEFIELD mynamefield }," }

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

The .csv file I'm using had the first and last name in the same cell.  I did
a sample sample and I split the names up into two columns, first and last
names .  When I tried to do a mail merge in Word it still doesn't recognize
the name and just put To whom it may concern.  If someone could help me
figure this out,  I would really appreciate it.  Thanks, Mindy

Hi =?Utf-8?B?TWluZHk=?=,

It always helps to mention the version of Word involved so that we can
better picture what the problem might be.

The .csv file I'm using had the first and last name in the same cell.  
I did a sample sample and I split the names up into two columns, first
and last names .  When I tried to do a mail merge in Word it still
doesn't recognize the name and just put To whom it may concern.

I get the impression you're trying to use the "Greeting line" field in
word 2002 or 2003?

The problem is that your field names have to match what Word expects
them to be. In the "Greeting line" dialog box click the "Match fields"
button. Now you can tell Word which fields in your csv file match what.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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