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General discussion

office 2007 word mail merge date problem

Oct 1, 2008 7:58AM PDT

This is driving me crazy. I live in australia our date format is
dd/mm/yyyy
Everything on my computor is set to this. my mail merge letters insert the correct date mode in the top of my page .
The problem is in the merge field "date"
This merges my data in the US date format mm/dd/yyyy
My customers get letters with the US date format and I have looked everywhere for a solution.
HELP NEEDED DOWN UNDER

Discussion is locked

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(NT) Should have stated i am using vista home Ultimate.
Oct 1, 2008 8:00AM PDT
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Link.
Oct 1, 2008 7:56PM PDT
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mailmerge switch code
Oct 2, 2008 7:39AM PDT

I have checked all this out but still have no idea.
basically i press alt f9 and get the {MERGEFIELD Date}
but then what do i do. It says to add a switch but i cant see how.
the instructions on the microsoft page always seem to lose me somewhere.

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Re: switch
Oct 2, 2008 7:47AM PDT
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thanks i will check that out.
Oct 2, 2008 8:26AM PDT

the most frustrating thing is i had to do this with my last office 2002?on my xp which i changed this year. My brother in england talked me through it but i have no idea how we did it.
thanks for your help i will let the forum know when i have solved it.

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still not working
Oct 3, 2008 8:00AM PDT

when i switch using \@ which seems to be the correct switch for date then put in my date format dd.mm.yyyy I get a mention saying this doesnt exist in the source document (excel in this case) the stupid thing is this is the date format used everywhere on my computor ( I think) and also in the switch info it says you must switch in the main document (My mail merge letter )not the source.
I will now go to excel 2007 and see if there is somewhere there where i have not got the australian date .

If i find an answer to this i will post it here.

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If Excel is the data source ...
Oct 4, 2008 4:09AM PDT

there's an easy solution to use formatting in Excel, not in Word. In fact, that's what I always do, format in the source.

In Excel, make a new column, and use the format-function there to make a text representation of the date in the form you want. Then in Word merge that new field as a text field without any formatting applied. Success 100% guaranteed.

Kees

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thanks
Oct 4, 2008 10:17AM PDT

I will do that later this morning. I was sure there had to be a solution but kept trying in the merged letter and was getting more and more frustrated.

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data base in access
Oct 4, 2008 11:55AM PDT

my data base is in access. i found i had to export it to excel and then merge. I cant remember why. this has been frustrating me since may.
I need to get my monthly letters out now and then work on the solution later. I think from all your help in the main letter I should be able to work it out. I know the switch is \@ and then the date format but as you said the brackets and "" are a bit confusing.
I will get to the bottom of this and let you know when i do.
At least if my customers know i have put the USA date format they are reading my letters.
thanks again.

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Re: database in Access
Oct 4, 2008 9:21PM PDT

In Access, you can define a query with a formatted field in stead of a date-field. And then you can use that query as a data source in Word. That's what I do, if possible. And it surely is here.

This is the new field in MS Access:
formatted_date: format (mydate, "dd-mm-yyyy")

Couldn't be easier.

Kees

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access
Oct 4, 2008 10:16PM PDT

so i make a new field and transfer all my dates to that field. i am not sure how that works. i have almost 10,000 addresses on my data base.
i will look into it later.

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Re: new field
Oct 4, 2008 10:19PM PDT

No, you don't make a new field in the database.

You define a query that has all fields from the table needed in the mail-merge (no need to include fields you don't use) plus this one new calculated field. That's all very basic use of MS Access, both making queries and adding calculated fields to it.

Then you use this query as the data source for your mail-merge.

Kees

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access
Apr 27, 2009 2:02PM PDT

I had the same problem. I was trying to merge from Access 2007 to a Word 2007 document. I used the Altf9 hint above and in the date field I ammended it as follows:

{MERGEFIElD StartDate\@"dd/MM/yyy"}

Where StartDate is the name of my field, yours will be whatever you have named the field you are merging from.

This worked perfectly for me

Jo

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(NT) thx! werkt idd super
Oct 18, 2009 12:33AM PDT
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date format in word mail merge
Jul 13, 2011 12:24AM PDT

the solution
{MERGEFILED StartDate\@"ddddd dd MMMM yyyy"} works a treat from Excel also perhaps unsurprisingly