Merge From Excel in 2003 data format issue

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Neil Shirley - 30 Mar 2004 13:22 GMT

Dear All

Our problem is specifically to do with the mail merge facility between word and excel in office 2003. We are using the wizard to create a mail merge and this wizard requires you to specify the source data. In this case we have and excel spreadsheet with pre formatted data.

The wizard then asks us to create the output document and at this point the wizard asks us to choose the fields to insert from the source document. At this point the wizard prompts to connect the data and shows the us a preview of what the data is going to look like. It is here where it starts to become hit or miss. Some times it pulls the data through exactly as it is formatted in the Excel document, at other random times it pulls the data through with no formatting so in effect it is set back to default. Please see example below.

We would like the date format to be the following:

25 Jan 76 and we have set it like this in the Excel sheet but the mail merge brings it through like this 1/25/76 in the American short date format. We are experiencing a similar thing with the percentages - we would like them to come through with two decimal places (as in the excel spreadhseet) but the wizard is pulling them through with four or more.

However, I must stress this is an intermittent fault because some times if you run the wizard from scratch again it is successful.

Any ideas would be most welcome

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Peter Jamieson - 30 Mar 2004 14:48 GMT

Typically the way to get the data in the nearest format to the one used to
display the data in Excel is to check Word Tools||Options|General|Confirm
conversions at open, go through the connection process again, then choose
DDE when it is offered. But this requires Excel to be present on the system
doing the merge and a copy of Excel is started which can sometimes create
problems.

BTW as a general rule it isn't a good idea to post attachments to these
newsgroups - a lot of people won't open them because of the virus risk and a
lot of people filter out any messages containing attachments so reducing the
chance that you will get replies.

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

Dear All
Our problem is specifically to do with the mail merge facility between word
and excel in office 2003. We are using the wizard to create a mail merge and
this wizard requires you to specify the source data. In this case we have
and excel spreadsheet with pre formatted data.
The wizard then asks us to create the output document and at this point the
wizard asks us to choose the fields to insert from the source document. At
this point the wizard prompts to connect the data and shows the us a preview
of what the data is going to look like. It is here where it starts to
become hit or miss. Some times it pulls the data through exactly as it is
formatted in the Excel document, at other random times it pulls the data
through with no formatting so in effect it is set back to default. Please
see example below.
We would like the date format to be the following:
25 Jan 76 and we have set it like this in the Excel sheet but the mail merge
brings it through like this 1/25/76 in the American short date format. We
are experiencing a similar thing with the percentages - we would like them
to come through with two decimal places (as in the excel spreadhseet) but
the wizard is pulling them through with four or more.
However, I must stress this is an intermittent fault because some times if
you run the wizard from scratch again it is successful.
Any ideas would be most welcome

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