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#1
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Merge Fields and Formating - How to easily repeat a pre-set merge.
I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge
(essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#2
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See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's
website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#3
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I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and
here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#4
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I assume that what you wanted was $27,315.00 (or maybe "Amount $27,315.00)
and I assume that the 27315 comes from the LST_PRICE field Did you use Ctrl+F9 to insert the field delimiters? If you did, it may just be a matter of use Alt+F9 to toggle off the display of field codes. (However, you will have to get rid of the word Amount from inside the field. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#5
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You skipped the important third paragraph when you took that information
from my web site Toggle the field code (ALT+F9) to change LTST_PRICE to {Mergefield LSTST_PRICE} Inside the brackets, add the switch Toggle back, then F9 to update. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org David Nelson wrote: I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#6
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Quite right. ALT+F9 made all the difference. I have to admit reading
directions is sometimes as difficult as asking for directions. While it is probably already on your website, I am suffering from lazy bones, so let me know if it explains how to format an alphanumeric field to be an alphanumeric field (my "stock numbers" that are numeric work fine, those preceded with a letter come across as "0"). A warm thanks in advance to you and Doug for your assistance. If ever in Austin let me know and I buy you a beer or coffee (depending on time of day). "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... You skipped the important third paragraph when you took that information from my web site Toggle the field code (ALT+F9) to change LTST_PRICE to {Mergefield LSTST_PRICE} Inside the brackets, add the switch Toggle back, then F9 to update. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org David Nelson wrote: I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#7
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You cannot do alphanumeric fields with a switch. If they are not coming
across correctly (and they should) then you need to use the alternative method of connection to your data as detailed in the Excel data section of http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_lab...th_word_xp.htm where I wrote it down to save having to rewrite it individually for each user who asked -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org David Nelson wrote: Quite right. ALT+F9 made all the difference. I have to admit reading directions is sometimes as difficult as asking for directions. While it is probably already on your website, I am suffering from lazy bones, so let me know if it explains how to format an alphanumeric field to be an alphanumeric field (my "stock numbers" that are numeric work fine, those preceded with a letter come across as "0"). A warm thanks in advance to you and Doug for your assistance. If ever in Austin let me know and I buy you a beer or coffee (depending on time of day). "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... You skipped the important third paragraph when you took that information from my web site Toggle the field code (ALT+F9) to change LTST_PRICE to {Mergefield LSTST_PRICE} Inside the brackets, add the switch Toggle back, then F9 to update. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org David Nelson wrote: I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |
#8
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I do not understand all this fields business in mailmerge but I do use
mailmerge a lot and I found the easiest thing to do is set up some extra columns in my excel spreadsheet and convert to the item I have problems with (dates, currency, alphanumerics etc.) to text and use the text columns in the mailmerge. "David Nelson" wrote: Quite right. ALT+F9 made all the difference. I have to admit reading directions is sometimes as difficult as asking for directions. While it is probably already on your website, I am suffering from lazy bones, so let me know if it explains how to format an alphanumeric field to be an alphanumeric field (my "stock numbers" that are numeric work fine, those preceded with a letter come across as "0"). A warm thanks in advance to you and Doug for your assistance. If ever in Austin let me know and I buy you a beer or coffee (depending on time of day). "Graham Mayor" wrote in message ... You skipped the important third paragraph when you took that information from my web site Toggle the field code (ALT+F9) to change LTST_PRICE to {Mergefield LSTST_PRICE} Inside the brackets, add the switch Toggle back, then F9 to update. -- Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org David Nelson wrote: I went to Graham Mayor's webpage and thought I followed the instructions and here is what I got (I was trying to get the "List Price" = LST_PRICE to show as a dollar amount). The first group are my field names and coding. The second set of information is a sample of the result. Obviously I something is "lost in translation." Most likely something really simple. {«LST_PRICE» Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} «CARLINE» «STOCK_NO» «Pinstripes» «Paint» «Total» {27315. Amount \# "$, 0.00 ;( $, 0.00)"} ACCORD COUPE 5014.0 459. 250. 28024 "Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message ... See "Formatting Word fields with switches" on fellow MVP Graham Mayor's website at http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm Just saving the mailmerge main document as a document should suffice. Then just open it and execute the merge whenever it is required. -- Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis. Hope this helps Doug Robbins - Word MVP "David Nelson" wrote in message ... I am attempting to merge Excel fields into a Word Document using mailmerge (essentially filling in a form). For lack of a better document I am using "letter" merge (8.5"x11") as my "form" (e.g. a blank piece of paper). I am experiencing two issues: 1. The numbers are losing their formating. One field I would like to have as currency with cents and another is a "Stock Number" that is alphanumeric. The currency field comes across as a number with no formating. The alphanumeric part is fine as long as it is numeric only (if an "alpha" is in it the value returned is "0"). My field values are reflected as STOCK_NO and LST_PRICE. 2. My second issue is that this process would be run several times a week. It appears the easiest way to make this repeatable is to create a template (*.dot) file that references the same Excel file and process it with the updates...or am I missing something? Thanks in Advance, Dave |