Reformat Date, Time and Number fields in a Mail Merge document

Reformat Date, Time and Number fields in a Mail Merge document

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When date, time or number fields are imported from Excel to a Word mail merge document the formatting reverts to general format, as defined in the BIOS of your computer, eg date fields display as mm/dd/yy. You can reformat them in the Word mail merge document and the changes you make will remain in the document.

Date Fields imported from an Excel file to a Mail Merge document 

  • In the Word mail merge document, select the imported date field.
  • Right click over the selected field and choose Edit Field… from the menu commands to open the Field dialogue box.
  • Click on the Field Codes button (bottom left of Field dialogue box)
  • At Advanced Field Properties (top right of dialogue box) you will see a box with information similar to the text belowMERGEFIELD StartDate

Type the following after the name of the field

\@ “dd-MMM-yy” to see date in the format 25-Feb-10
\@ “dd/MM/yyyy” to see the date in the format 25/02/2010
\@ “dd MMMM yyyy” to see the date in the format 25 February 2010
\@ “dddd, dd MMMM yyyy” to see the date in the format Friday, 25 February 2010

The box should now look similar to this: MERGEFIELD StartDate \@ “dd-MMM-yy”

  • Click on the OK button on the Field dialogue box.

Time Fields

MERGEFIELD Arrival Time

  1. Type the following after the name of the field\@ “HH:mm” to see time in the format 13:45
    \@ “HH:mm:ss” to see the time in the format 13:45:30
    \@ “h:mm AM\PM” to see the time in the format 1:45 PM
    \@ “h:mm:ss AM\PM” to see the time in the format 1:45:30 PM
    The box should now look similar to this: MERGEFIELD Arrival Time \@ “HH:mm”

Number Fields

MERGEFIELD HireFee

  1. Type the following after the name of the field\# “0.00” to see number in the format 1234.50
    \# “#,##0.00;- #,##0.00” to see positive number in the format 1,234.50 and negative number in the format -1,234.50
    \# “£#,##0.00;- £#,##0.00” to see positive number in the format £1,234.50 and negative number in the format -£1,234.50

The box should now look similar to this: MERGEFIELD HireFee \# “#,##0.00;- #,##0.00”