Why do AccessUK dates in Excel change to US format in Word Mail Me

[Guest]

Why don't dates retain their UK format when Excel files (exported from
Access) are used as the data source of a Word Mail Merge document. All my PC
global/regional settings are set to UK.
I have tried using Alt F9 and a switch such as \@"d MMM yyyy" which converts
US dates back to UK format, however blank dates are allocated todays date
which is not what I require. I feel that there must be a straightforward
solution but I can't find it.

Used to use .doc format files for mail merge with no problems when exporting
from Access, however, due to security issues Microsoft removed .doc
extensions as an acceptable file - didn't fancy editing the Registry to add
..doc to the list of acceptable extensions.

 

[Guest]

Used to use .doc format files for mail merge with no problems when
exporting

So did I. Changed the filename to .txt, and was still able to use the
same file as merge source. Just bloody irritating that Access lets
you export RTF/DOC files but won't let you call them RTF/DOC
files.

Access/Excel dates are a number, just displayed with date format.
Don't know why Word is using the wrong format: You would have
to ask in a Word forum.

Depending on how you export or merge, you sometimes get a text
field instead of a date field. Text fields have the format used by the
exporting program. Date fields have the format used by the importing
program.

I think DDE is always text, so Word 6 mail merge always used Text
fields. OLEDB is date fields, so OLEDB is Word date format. Dunno
about Word 8 mail merge.. Word still lets you do Word 6 and Word 8
mail merges - ask in a Word forum

(david)

 

[Guest]

David,

Thank you very much for your prompt response. This is the first time that I
have tried the forum - been suffering in silence for years! I will try
posting on the Word forum for help on the use of Excel as the mail merge data
source. Other than the date problem .xls files seem ideal with data organised
automatically in columns. Might have to re-consider the use of .txt data
files, however, I seem to recall some issues with comma delimited files. An
odd number of quotes " within the text of a memo field causing a mismatching
of fields to data! I seem to recall that early versions of word looked
automatically for .doc mail merge data files which makes Microsofts decision
to preclude these seem rather strange and annoying.

I will need to try the outlook forum as to why .mdb files have to changed
to, for example, .txt files before sending as email attachments - otherwise
there seems no way of getting outlook to view or save them due to security
issues. When files are from a trusted source this is a pain, surely there
should be an option to accept .mdb files if you want to. Anyway enough of my
moans.

Thanks again

PineSoft