Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Suzanne Suzanne is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Beyond frustrated with mailmerge date format

Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source (not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as "39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)

  #2   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Peter Jamieson Peter Jamieson is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,582
Default Beyond frustrated with mailmerge date format

Over an hour spent on this stupid...

Yes, it's a frustrating problem.

Which version of Word/Excel? Was the sheet created in this version of Excel?

Is this just one spreadsheet?

Are all the items in the offending column dates, or are some numeric?

If you want, despam my e-mail (take the KillmapS out of
), send me your Excel workbook and I will try
to have a look: however, I am not around for much longer right nowand will
be out of the picture later and from tomorrow onwards



--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source (not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel
spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as "39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I
assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)


  #3   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Suzanne Suzanne is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Beyond frustrated with mailmerge date format

Thanks Peter.

I put the spreadsheet ("IHS V2".xls) on my Office Live site:

http://suzleigh.com/MERGE.aspx

I'm running Office 2003.

BTW: This is the actual Excel data that I'm linking to the form you helped
me with last month -- which is working beautifully (except for the date).

I know that there are still some kinks in the spreadsheet (I can't get the
coding right on the drop-down validations), but am running out of time to
mess with it.

Thanks again -- Suz


"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Over an hour spent on this stupid...


Yes, it's a frustrating problem.

Which version of Word/Excel? Was the sheet created in this version of Excel?

Is this just one spreadsheet?

Are all the items in the offending column dates, or are some numeric?

If you want, despam my e-mail (take the KillmapS out of
), send me your Excel workbook and I will try
to have a look: however, I am not around for much longer right nowand will
be out of the picture later and from tomorrow onwards



--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source (not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel
spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as "39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I
assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)



  #4   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Suzanne Suzanne is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Never mind... its working now (don't know why)

Peter! Never mind... I re-saved the Excel workbook as "V3" and for some
reason, the dates are now appearing as they should be. I have no idea why.

I am, of course, still open to any suggestions or changes to the Word and/or
Excel documents (as you have the time/desire).

Suz

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Over an hour spent on this stupid...


Yes, it's a frustrating problem.

Which version of Word/Excel? Was the sheet created in this version of Excel?

Is this just one spreadsheet?

Are all the items in the offending column dates, or are some numeric?

If you want, despam my e-mail (take the KillmapS out of
), send me your Excel workbook and I will try
to have a look: however, I am not around for much longer right nowand will
be out of the picture later and from tomorrow onwards



--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source (not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel
spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as "39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I
assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)



  #5   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Peter Jamieson Peter Jamieson is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,582
Default Never mind... its working now (don't know why)

I've had a quick look, and I think the problem is caused by the fact that
some of the fields are only present in the first data row. In this case, the
Excel driver/provider may get a bit confused as to the data type. If you
duplicate that data for the other rows instead of leaving it blank (if
that's an option) I suspect things will go much better.

(FWIW What happens here is that when I first preview the data, I see a
5-digit number instead of the date, as you do, but after that things seem
OK.)

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Peter! Never mind... I re-saved the Excel workbook as "V3" and for some
reason, the dates are now appearing as they should be. I have no idea
why.

I am, of course, still open to any suggestions or changes to the Word
and/or
Excel documents (as you have the time/desire).

Suz

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Over an hour spent on this stupid...


Yes, it's a frustrating problem.

Which version of Word/Excel? Was the sheet created in this version of
Excel?

Is this just one spreadsheet?

Are all the items in the offending column dates, or are some numeric?

If you want, despam my e-mail (take the KillmapS out of
), send me your Excel workbook and I will
try
to have a look: however, I am not around for much longer right nowand
will
be out of the picture later and from tomorrow onwards



--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source
(not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel
spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of
yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as
"39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or
better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on
a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I
assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)






  #6   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
Suzanne Suzanne is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Never mind... its working now (don't know why)

Thanks Peter... I had already copied the format down to row 250 (I'm still
trying to work out a way to programatically have Excel copy down to the next
row). I'm thinking the problem was the date format was originally "Custom"
-- and when Word encountered it, it didn't know what to do with it.

Regardless, it seems to be working fine now.

Thanks again!

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

I've had a quick look, and I think the problem is caused by the fact that
some of the fields are only present in the first data row. In this case, the
Excel driver/provider may get a bit confused as to the data type. If you
duplicate that data for the other rows instead of leaving it blank (if
that's an option) I suspect things will go much better.

(FWIW What happens here is that when I first preview the data, I see a
5-digit number instead of the date, as you do, but after that things seem
OK.)

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Peter! Never mind... I re-saved the Excel workbook as "V3" and for some
reason, the dates are now appearing as they should be. I have no idea
why.

I am, of course, still open to any suggestions or changes to the Word
and/or
Excel documents (as you have the time/desire).

Suz

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

Over an hour spent on this stupid...

Yes, it's a frustrating problem.

Which version of Word/Excel? Was the sheet created in this version of
Excel?

Is this just one spreadsheet?

Are all the items in the offending column dates, or are some numeric?

If you want, despam my e-mail (take the KillmapS out of
), send me your Excel workbook and I will
try
to have a look: however, I am not around for much longer right nowand
will
be out of the picture later and from tomorrow onwards



--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"Suzanne" wrote in message
...
Over an hour spent on this stupid...

I've changed all my Excel date formats to a specified "Date" format:
"dd-mmm-yyyy" (vice "Custom: yyyyMMMdd") (didn't help)

I've opened my Excel spreadsheet as the data source (not working)

I've opened using "Connect to new data source.odc" as the data source
(not
working)

I re-opened (refreshed) the data source after changing the Excel
spreadsheet
(not working)

I've spent considerable time looking at old posts (not helping as of
yet)

I'm testing dates on a plain page -- the only thing on the page are the
following mergefield codes -- which are consistently resulting as
"39375"

{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE"}
{MERGEFIELD "STARTDATE" \@ "dd-mmm-yyyy"}

What do I need to do to get my date to show up as 20-Oct-2007 (or
better
yet, "20071020")?

BTW, telling me to update a service pack won't do me any good -- I'm on
a
system which, for the most part, is locked down by administrators (I
assume
they have already installed all the service packs anyway)





Reply
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Mailmerge date format Ocean Mailmerge 5 April 9th 06 06:28 PM
US / English date format mailmerge Bento72 Mailmerge 1 February 7th 06 02:57 PM
convert date format after mailmerge David.W. Mailmerge 1 May 9th 05 12:25 PM
Mailmerge changing date format Diane@Adlam Mailmerge 1 April 21st 05 04:35 PM
Mailmerge in Word, date format in merged doc brownsox Mailmerge 2 January 14th 05 01:29 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 12:24 AM.

Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 Microsoft Office Word Forum - WordBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Microsoft Word"