This solution took me two hours to find, so I want to yell it from the
rooftops.

You don't have to format the Excel database to be text only.
You don't have to use switches.
All you need to do are these simple steps.

(I got this information from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...51033.aspx#DDE )

Use Dynamic Data Exchange

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is one method available in the Microsoft
Windows® operating system for transferring data between applications.
It uses shared memory to exchange the data. If you use other data
transfer methods, you run into a problem: Data from the worksheet is
transferred in the native format in which Excel stores it rather than
with the formatting that you applied in the worksheet cells.

To choose the DDE data transfer method when you're connecting to an
Excel worksheet during a mail merge, all you have to do is select one
check box in Word:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab.
2. Click Confirm conversion at Open.

At the step in the mail-merge process when you connect to your data
file, after you locate the Excel worksheet you want to connect to, the
Confirm Data Source dialog box opens. Click MS Excel Worksheets via DDE
(*.xls), and then click OK. In the Microsoft Excel dialog box, for
Named or cell range, select the cell range or worksheet that contains
the information you want to merge, and then click OK. The numbers from
the Excel spreadsheet will now look exactly the same in your merged
documents as they look in the worksheet cells.

Note It's probably a good idea to turn off the Confirm conversion at
Open option after you finish your mail merge. Otherwise, you might be
prompted to confirm your data source at times when that's the last
thing you want to worry about.

Perhaps you should have looked here sooner This crops up regularly.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



wrote:
This solution took me two hours to find, so I want to yell it from the
rooftops.

You don't have to format the Excel database to be text only.
You don't have to use switches.
All you need to do are these simple steps.

(I got this information from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/as...51033.aspx#DDE )

Use Dynamic Data Exchange

Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) is one method available in the Microsoft
Windows® operating system for transferring data between applications.
It uses shared memory to exchange the data. If you use other data
transfer methods, you run into a problem: Data from the worksheet is
transferred in the native format in which Excel stores it rather than
with the formatting that you applied in the worksheet cells.

To choose the DDE data transfer method when you're connecting to an
Excel worksheet during a mail merge, all you have to do is select one
check box in Word:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General
tab.
2. Click Confirm conversion at Open.

At the step in the mail-merge process when you connect to your data
file, after you locate the Excel worksheet you want to connect to, the
Confirm Data Source dialog box opens. Click MS Excel Worksheets via
DDE (*.xls), and then click OK. In the Microsoft Excel dialog box, for
Named or cell range, select the cell range or worksheet that contains
the information you want to merge, and then click OK. The numbers from
the Excel spreadsheet will now look exactly the same in your merged
documents as they look in the worksheet cells.

Note It's probably a good idea to turn off the Confirm conversion at
Open option after you finish your mail merge. Otherwise, you might be
prompted to confirm your data source at times when that's the last
thing you want to worry about.