I can replicate some of this (i.e. enough to see why it might not work, as
Word is simply displaying the internal representation of the date stored in
Excel ) but as soon as I apply date formats to all the cells, Word gets it
right. (Word 2003 SP2)

Two suggestions:
a. You can try changing the way that Word connects to Excel to DDE. You can
do that by checking Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversions at
open", then go through the Select Data Source dialog again, select your
Excel workbook, and select the DDE option when prompted. However, DDE is
sometimes unreliable, and it can only see the first sheet in your workbook.
b. Instead of using =page2!C12 and cells formatted as dates, use cells
formatted as general or text and use
=TEXT(page2!C12,"DD-MMM-YYYY"), substituting the format you want to use in
Word in place of "DD-MMM-YYYYY"

Peter Jamieson

"Bob Bedford" wrote in message
...
simply
='page2'!C12


"Peter Jamieson" a écrit dans le message
de news: ...
How are you referencing the other cell?

Peter Jamieson

"Bob Bedford" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm trying to get a date field from an excel file using mailmerge.

In the Excel File, the column is a reference to an other cell on an
other page.
Both fields are in date format.

When merging in the Word document, the date becomes 38736

I've tried to merge formatting {MERGEFIELD datefield \@ "dd mmmm yy"}
but it doens't change anything.

I can't understand why it doesn't work.

Please help, as I really need this feature.

Bob