Mail Merge using an Excel spreadsheet as a data source

[Guest]

Several of us use Excel as the data source, but when we connect to the
spreadsheet, in the Mail Merge recipients box Word displays the columns in
the wrong order. For example:
Spreadsheet column order is: Last Name, First Name, Address1, Address2,City,
State, Zip
WORD displays this as: Address2,City, State,Zip, Last Name, First Name,
Address1

All the data is displayed, but if you want to select only certain people on
the spreadsheet you have to scroll over on each record to find the right name
and select it.

Word will still place the data in the correct field, the problem only seems
to exist in the Mail Merge Recipients box. HELP

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?U2hhcnJvblR1Y2tlcg==?=,

Several of us use Excel as the data source, but when we connect to the
spreadsheet, in the Mail Merge recipients box Word displays the columns in
the wrong order. For example:
Spreadsheet column order is: Last Name, First Name, Address1, Address2,City,
State, Zip
WORD displays this as: Address2,City, State,Zip, Last Name, First Name,
Address1

There is simply no way to control in which order Word decides to display the
columns in a data source. I am surprised it does it in the order you describe,
however, as usually it insists on putting the Name information first. If you
change Address2 in Excel to StreetAddress do you get a different order?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Oddly, I've never seen my columns listed in any order other than the one in
which they appear in the spreadsheet.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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