Article ID: 327579
Article Last Modified on 4/7/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q327579
SYMPTOMS
When you use Word 2002 to create a mail merge document that is linked to a data source that contains dates, the values of the date fields in the document may display the incorrect date. Specifically, the day and the month may be switched.
CAUSE
This problem occurs when all the following conditions are true:
- You have attached the data source to the document by means of OLE DB.
- Your system date format is not MM/DD/YYYY or MM/DD/YY.
- The relevant date values are ambiguous where the day and month values are concerned. For example, the day value is less than or equal to 12. This occurs whether or not a formatting switch has been applied to the date mail merge field in the mail merge document.
- You have applied a formatting switch to the date mail merge field in the mail merge document.
RESOLUTION
Service Pack Information
This problem is corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3. To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307841 How to obtain the latest Office XP service pack
Hotfix Information
A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Office XP Service Pack that contains this hotfix.
To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.
The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.
Date Time Size File name ----------------------------------------------- 24-Jan-2003 18:39 5,676,428 Winword.msp 24-Jan-2003 19:21 6,629,784 Winwordff.msp
After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later:
Date Time Version Size File name
--------------------------------------------------------
24-Jan-2003 02:05 10.0.4921.0 10,598,984 Winword.exe
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3.
MORE INFORMATION
With the hotfix installed, you must still insert the desired date/time picture switch in the DATE mergefield. Such as {MERGEFIELD Date \@ "dd.MM.YYYY"} or {MERGEFIELD Date \@ "d.MMM.YYYY"}.
Additional query words: FIX
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