My data source is in an Excel spreadsheet. Some zip codes are 5 digits, some
are 5+4. When I open the data source in Word, leading zeros are dropped from
all of the 5 digit zips. More troublesome is the problem that all of the 5+4
zip codes appear as 0. I've tried formatting the field as text to no avail on
either problem.

The lovely Graham explains this about 2/3rds of the way down this page:
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"HoyaJane" wrote in message
...
My data source is in an Excel spreadsheet. Some zip codes are 5 digits,
some
are 5+4. When I open the data source in Word, leading zeros are dropped
from
all of the 5 digit zips. More troublesome is the problem that all of the
5+4
zip codes appear as 0. I've tried formatting the field as text to no avail
on
either problem.

The leading zero problem is resolved, thank you.

The bigger issue, and the one that remains is the problem of the Zip+4
formatting changing the data to 0. That is to say, in Excel, the data is, for
example, 97105-4568, in Word, in the "review/edit data" screen, the zip field
is populated with 0 for every record that has a zip+4 format. Simply
formatting this with a switch won't work because then it's populated with
00000-0000.

"Anne Troy" wrote:

The lovely Graham explains this about 2/3rds of the way down this page:
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"HoyaJane" wrote in message
...
My data source is in an Excel spreadsheet. Some zip codes are 5 digits,
some
are 5+4. When I open the data source in Word, leading zeros are dropped
from
all of the 5 digit zips. More troublesome is the problem that all of the
5+4
zip codes appear as 0. I've tried formatting the field as text to no avail
on
either problem.

The problem is the hyphen in the Excel data source. Remove that and you can
use the method suggested on the page Ann posted earlier. If you are unable
to remove the hyphen from the data source, then see the Excel data section
of http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_lab...th_word_xp.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


HoyaJane wrote:
The leading zero problem is resolved, thank you.

The bigger issue, and the one that remains is the problem of the Zip+4
formatting changing the data to 0. That is to say, in Excel, the data
is, for example, 97105-4568, in Word, in the "review/edit data"
screen, the zip field is populated with 0 for every record that has a
zip+4 format. Simply formatting this with a switch won't work because
then it's populated with 00000-0000.

"Anne Troy" wrote:

The lovely Graham explains this about 2/3rds of the way down this
page: http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"HoyaJane" wrote in message
...
My data source is in an Excel spreadsheet. Some zip codes are 5
digits, some are 5+4. When I open the data source in Word, leading
zeros are dropped from all of the 5 digit zips. More troublesome is
the problem that all of the 5+4 zip codes appear as 0. I've tried
formatting the field as text to no avail on either problem.

Eventually, it worked, though the process was very arduous. In the end, using
the command buttons (instead of the wizard) with a .txt version of the data
file worked.

If you are referring to the DDE method of data transfer in your response, I
tried that and the whole system crashed.

I think, in general, these are persistent problems the good people at
Microsoft would do well to fix.

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

The problem is the hyphen in the Excel data source. Remove that and you can
use the method suggested on the page Ann posted earlier. If you are unable
to remove the hyphen from the data source, then see the Excel data section
of http://www.gmayor.com/mail_merge_lab...th_word_xp.htm

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


HoyaJane wrote:
The leading zero problem is resolved, thank you.

The bigger issue, and the one that remains is the problem of the Zip+4
formatting changing the data to 0. That is to say, in Excel, the data
is, for example, 97105-4568, in Word, in the "review/edit data"
screen, the zip field is populated with 0 for every record that has a
zip+4 format. Simply formatting this with a switch won't work because
then it's populated with 00000-0000.

"Anne Troy" wrote:

The lovely Graham explains this about 2/3rds of the way down this
page: http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
*******************
~Anne Troy

www.OfficeArticles.com


"HoyaJane" wrote in message
...
My data source is in an Excel spreadsheet. Some zip codes are 5
digits, some are 5+4. When I open the data source in Word, leading
zeros are dropped from all of the 5 digit zips. More troublesome is
the problem that all of the 5+4 zip codes appear as 0. I've tried
formatting the field as text to no avail on either problem.