Date formatting

[Ron]

Hi:

I am trying to mail merge a column of recertification dates to June 2006
only. But every way I try to format this, it is has unusual responses. I
even tried formatting June 2006 as text but this does not work. I want the
actual response in the merge document to actually show "June 2006" but excel
keeps updating each entry into the next date.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Ron

 

[Myrna Larson]

What information is on the Excel sheet? Maybe you need to add another column
with a formula that evaluates to "June 2006". If you are doing something
similar now, what formula are you using?

What program are you using for the merge, Word?

 

[Ron]

Thanks for responding Myrna, I am just trying to make certification cards
from an excel database. I just want to show the date of the course on one
line of the card and the expiration on the next line.

When I format the date June 2006 as "mm,yyyy", it shows as 12:00am on the
card (in a word document). When I format the June 2006 as text, it shows up
as "0" and I just cannot understand what I need to do just to make it simply
show as June 2006 on the card.

Thanks again for anyones help

Ron

 

[Debra Dalgleish]

If you're adding the formatting switch in Word, use upper case M in the
month format, e.g. MMMM yyyy.

In the Mail Merge, after you select your Excel file as a data source,
you should see a 'Confirm Data Source' dialog box.
(If you don't see the dialog box, change the setting in Word --
under Tools>Options, General -- add a check mark to
'Confirm Conversion at Open')

From that list, choose 'MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)', and your
formatting will be retained.

If you have to connect through a different source, you can format the
fields in the Word document. For example, to format as Month Year:

1. In Word, in the Main Document, press Alt+F9 to view the field codes.
2. Find the field code for the number. It will look something like:
{ MERGEFIELD FieldName }
3. Add a switch, to format the date.
For example:
{ MERGEFIELD FieldName \@ "MMMM yyyy"}
4. Press Alt+F9 to hide the field codes.
5. Save the Main Document

 

[Ron]

I am sorry Debra, but that does not work for me. It still shows "12:00am" in
the merge field.

Any other ideas?