How do I maintain cell formatting when I export to a mail merge?

[Guest]

When I create a mail merge in Word from Excel data, I often have a hard time
with records that have specific cell formatting. For example, I simply enter
0123456789 in an Excel cell but have phone number formatting to give me (012)
345-6789. This saves a ton of time on the Excel side. But, if I have a phone
number "merge field", the formatting is lost and the number reverts to
0123456789 in Word. Is there any way to freeze or maintain this kind of
formatting when doing a mail merge in Word pulling from Excel? This would
save me SO much time.

Thanks.

 

[David Biddulph]

=TEXT(A1,"(000) 000-0000") if you want to do it in Excel, or otherwise you
may be able to use field formatting in Word

 

[Gord Dibben]

You do the the formatting in Word.

A recent post from Debra Dalgleish has this info.

Start Debra post......................................

Instead of formatting in Excel, you could format the text in Word, as
part of the mail merge.

Follow the instructions in this article for formatting the field codes
in Word:

Answer Box: Numbers don't merge right in Word
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/assistance/HA011164951033.aspx

Instead of number formats, use formatting like this:

{ MERGEFIELD FirstName \* Caps \* MERGEFORMAT }

End Debra post............................................


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP