Microsoft KB Archive/304387

= Date, Phone Number, and Currency fields are merged incorrectly when you use an Access or Excel data source in Word =

Article ID: 304387

Article Last Modified on 1/29/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Word 2003
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Office Word 2007

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This article was previously published under Q304387





For a Microsoft Word 97 and Word 2000 version of this article, see 142340.



SYMPTOMS
When you perform a mail merge in Microsoft Word by using OLEDB with a Microsoft Access or Microsoft Excel data source, the merge results for the Date, Phone Number, and Currency fields are incorrect. For example:

The Date field is displayed in the following format:

1995-10-22 00:00:00

The Phone Number field from an Access data source is displayed in the following format:

-7081234567.00

The Currency field is displayed in the following format:

12.00

-or-

12000



CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the data is displayed in its native, stored format in Access or Excel. To format merged data, you must format the merge fields in the main document. If you format the data in the data source, the formatting is not retained when you merge the data into the main document.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use one of the following methods.

In Microsoft Word
Use a switch to format the results of the MERGEFIELD. To do this, use one of the following methods.

Note To view the field codes in Microsoft Word, press ALT+F9.

Method 1: Use the Numeric Picture Switch
Include a numeric picture switch (\#) similar to one of the following examples:

In a currency field, use a Numeric Picture switch similar to:

{MERGEFIELD number \# $####,0.0}

Note The {MERGEFIELD number \# $####,0.0} string works for Microsoft SQL Server 6 as well.

In a telephone field, use a Numeric Picture switch similar to:

{MERGEFIELD phone \# ###'-'###'-'####}

Note The hyphen inside the mergefield is in single quotation marks. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

121938 Hyphens don't display correctly with numeric picture switch

Method 2: Use the Date-Time Picture Switch
Include a date-time picture switch (\@) in the Date field, so that the Date field looks like this:

{MERGEFIELD date \@ &quot;MMMM d, yyyy&quot;}

Note The picture switch is case-sensitive. Additionally, you must use quotation marks around the picture string.

In Microsoft Access
Create a query in Microsoft Access, and use the query in your Word mail merge. In the Microsoft Access query, use the FORMAT function to format the data to be merged in Microsoft Word. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

197520 How to use a query to format data for a mail merge



MORE INFORMATION
By default, Word uses OLEDB to connect to the data source when performing a mail merge. You can force Word to use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) by using programming code to access the data.

For additional information about using DDE to access the data in a mail merge, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

289830 Prompt to select table with Word 2002 mail merge code for Excel or Access data source

NoteFor more information about using field switches in Microsoft Word, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type general switches in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

Additional query words: winword access database data source odbc dde mail merge print merging merged records results fields mergefield currency money dollars $ date time wrong incorrect change how to switch picture numeric number decimal thousandths telephone word2000 access2000 excel2000 prb reviewdocid WD2002 WD2003 WD2007

Keywords: kbformat kbemail kbinterop kbmerge kbprb KB304387

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