Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
JethroUK© JethroUK© is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 110
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and have
finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i put e.g.

{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that when
entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?

  #2   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Graham Mayor Graham Mayor is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 19,312
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like that -
and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another thread; however
life's too short to go looking for that thread on a Sunday morning, so what
you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@ "yyyyMMdd"}
"{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i put
e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?



  #3   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Graham Mayor Graham Mayor is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 19,312
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

The other thread was in the mailmerge field forum to which you crossposted!


--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


Graham Mayor wrote:
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like
that - and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another
thread; however life's too short to go looking for that thread on a
Sunday morning, so what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@
"yyyyMMdd"} "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i put
e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?



  #4   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
JethroUK© JethroUK© is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 110
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

I tried CTRL+F9 and it now treats it like a field - Thanks

I tried macropods post 'as is' but unsuccessfully - upon reflection i
thought changing the date format (long for pending to short for history)
would be more effective (and might even work ) - It still doesn't work
(just leaves empty field) and for a lot of reasons i don't think it ever
will:

News gets broken into pieces - i might be missing some subtle spacing
I'm in UK and MS Office struggles with the dates here
They are appointments so have to include time which must blow it's mind e.g.

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

It's a shame that when connected as DDE there's no option to adopt the
format since it is sitting in Excel exactly as intended

I might shift the Day of the Week to a seperate field incase this is
puzzling it
I might just get XL to add "Pending" to the end
I might try shifting all the data into MS Word table - One day )

Until then I think i'll just print it out and highlight all pending
appointments with a pen )


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like that -
and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another thread; however
life's too short to go looking for that thread on a Sunday morning, so
what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@ "yyyyMMdd"}
"{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i put
e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?




  #5   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Graham Mayor Graham Mayor is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 19,312
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

Office doesn't struggle with dates in the UK? They merely have a different
format to US dates. As a former UK resident I always have my PC configured
for the UK and Macropod is in Australia where they use the same format..

{ Date \@ "ddd dd MMM mm:ss am/pm" }

is the correct switch to get the date and time in the format you chose from
the current date. As for your data, we don't appear to know what the field
contains. It won't make up a time if none exists in the field.

What does
{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" }
produce?
Connected by DDE that field should show what you have in Excel?

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


JethroUK© wrote:
I tried CTRL+F9 and it now treats it like a field - Thanks

I tried macropods post 'as is' but unsuccessfully - upon reflection i
thought changing the date format (long for pending to short for
history) would be more effective (and might even work ) - It still
doesn't work (just leaves empty field) and for a lot of reasons i
don't think it ever will:

News gets broken into pieces - i might be missing some subtle spacing
I'm in UK and MS Office struggles with the dates here
They are appointments so have to include time which must blow it's
mind e.g.
Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

It's a shame that when connected as DDE there's no option to adopt the
format since it is sitting in Excel exactly as intended

I might shift the Day of the Week to a seperate field incase this is
puzzling it
I might just get XL to add "Pending" to the end
I might try shifting all the data into MS Word table - One day )

Until then I think i'll just print it out and highlight all pending
appointments with a pen )


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like
that - and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another
thread; however life's too short to go looking for that thread on a
Sunday morning, so what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@
"yyyyMMdd"} "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i
put e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?





  #6   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Graham Mayor Graham Mayor is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 19,312
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

Plan B - that should be

{ Date \@ "ddd dd MMM hh:mm am/pm" }

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


Graham Mayor wrote:
Office doesn't struggle with dates in the UK? They merely have a
different format to US dates. As a former UK resident I always have
my PC configured for the UK and Macropod is in Australia where they
use the same format..
{ Date \@ "ddd dd MMM mm:ss am/pm" }

is the correct switch to get the date and time in the format you
chose from the current date. As for your data, we don't appear to
know what the field contains. It won't make up a time if none exists
in the field.
What does
{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" }
produce?
Connected by DDE that field should show what you have in Excel?


JethroUK© wrote:
I tried CTRL+F9 and it now treats it like a field - Thanks

I tried macropods post 'as is' but unsuccessfully - upon reflection i
thought changing the date format (long for pending to short for
history) would be more effective (and might even work ) - It still
doesn't work (just leaves empty field) and for a lot of reasons i
don't think it ever will:

News gets broken into pieces - i might be missing some subtle spacing
I'm in UK and MS Office struggles with the dates here
They are appointments so have to include time which must blow it's
mind e.g.
Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

It's a shame that when connected as DDE there's no option to adopt
the format since it is sitting in Excel exactly as intended

I might shift the Day of the Week to a seperate field incase this is
puzzling it
I might just get XL to add "Pending" to the end
I might try shifting all the data into MS Word table - One day )

Until then I think i'll just print it out and highlight all pending
appointments with a pen )


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like
that - and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another
thread; however life's too short to go looking for that thread on a
Sunday morning, so what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@
"yyyyMMdd"} "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long
and have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter
what i put e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?



  #7   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
JethroUK© JethroUK© is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 110
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

The source is e.g.

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" } (after DDE connection) is same:

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

Just as info: prior to connecting as DDE it was translated as Fri 18 Oct
06:00 PM ?????? - i assume this is something to do with differing start of
week but couldn't find a cure

After any IF function it's just blank - It might be something simple i just
can't see

P.S. I've had UK date problem before when connected by default OLE - and no
amount of formatting can put day/month correctly where they are ambiguous -
e.g. it can figure 23 of June (because there are not 23 months) - but not
the 7 June - it returns 6th July irrespective of any format - this does
suggest that Dates/times are not being passed as a number (as per Access and
Excel)

I don't know how DDE passes dates but i expect it must be text which could
open up a whole new can of worms

I'll give it another try and see if it works



"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Office doesn't struggle with dates in the UK? They merely have a different
format to US dates. As a former UK resident I always have my PC configured
for the UK and Macropod is in Australia where they use the same format..

{ Date \@ "ddd dd MMM mm:ss am/pm" }

is the correct switch to get the date and time in the format you chose
from the current date. As for your data, we don't appear to know what the
field contains. It won't make up a time if none exists in the field.

What does
{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" }
produce?
Connected by DDE that field should show what you have in Excel?

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


JethroUK© wrote:
I tried CTRL+F9 and it now treats it like a field - Thanks

I tried macropods post 'as is' but unsuccessfully - upon reflection i
thought changing the date format (long for pending to short for
history) would be more effective (and might even work ) - It still
doesn't work (just leaves empty field) and for a lot of reasons i
don't think it ever will:

News gets broken into pieces - i might be missing some subtle spacing
I'm in UK and MS Office struggles with the dates here
They are appointments so have to include time which must blow it's
mind e.g.
Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

It's a shame that when connected as DDE there's no option to adopt the
format since it is sitting in Excel exactly as intended

I might shift the Day of the Week to a seperate field incase this is
puzzling it
I might just get XL to add "Pending" to the end
I might try shifting all the data into MS Word table - One day )

Until then I think i'll just print it out and highlight all pending
appointments with a pen )


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like
that - and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another
thread; however life's too short to go looking for that thread on a
Sunday morning, so what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@
"yyyyMMdd"} "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i
put e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?




  #8   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Peter Jamieson Peter Jamieson is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,582
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

Just as info: prior to connecting as DDE it was translated as Fri 18 Oct
06:00 PM ?????? - i assume this is something to do with differing start
of week but couldn't find a cure


I wondered about this, but I don't think so - after all, 18 Oct 2007 is the
same day regardless of which day you regard as "day 1" in the week. Although
I read your previous messages about this and wondered whether you might have
the "1904" date system checked in Excel Tools|Options for this workbook,
that wouldn't give this particular result either. Much more likely is that
you are entering 07 and it's being interpreted as 1907 (where the dates
would indeed shift 1 day in the way you suggest. But that doesn't quite
square with what you have actually said, which is that you are entering and
seeing 2007. I wonder what happens if you start with a brand new Excel
workbook.

P.S. I've had UK date problem before when connected by default OLE - and
no amount of formatting can put day/month correctly where they are
ambiguous - e.g. it can figure 23 of June (because there are not 23
months) - but not the 7 June - it returns 6th July irrespective of any
format - this does suggest that Dates/times are not being passed as a
number (as per Access and Excel)


Yes, this problem certainly exists/existed and originated in the OLE DB
provider for the data source and was fixed in a hotfix and/or service pack,
and or in Word 2003 (sometimes it's not complete clear exactly /where/ the
problem has been fixed). But what it actually says is that the numeric date
in Excel is being converted into a string by the OLE DB provider.


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

"JethroUK©" wrote in message
...
The source is e.g.

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" } (after DDE connection) is same:

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

Just as info: prior to connecting as DDE it was translated as Fri 18 Oct
06:00 PM ?????? - i assume this is something to do with differing start
of week but couldn't find a cure

After any IF function it's just blank - It might be something simple i
just can't see

P.S. I've had UK date problem before when connected by default OLE - and
no amount of formatting can put day/month correctly where they are
ambiguous - e.g. it can figure 23 of June (because there are not 23
months) - but not the 7 June - it returns 6th July irrespective of any
format - this does suggest that Dates/times are not being passed as a
number (as per Access and Excel)

I don't know how DDE passes dates but i expect it must be text which could
open up a whole new can of worms

I'll give it another try and see if it works



"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Office doesn't struggle with dates in the UK? They merely have a
different format to US dates. As a former UK resident I always have my PC
configured for the UK and Macropod is in Australia where they use the
same format..

{ Date \@ "ddd dd MMM mm:ss am/pm" }

is the correct switch to get the date and time in the format you chose
from the current date. As for your data, we don't appear to know what the
field contains. It won't make up a time if none exists in the field.

What does
{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" }
produce?
Connected by DDE that field should show what you have in Excel?

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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


JethroUK© wrote:
I tried CTRL+F9 and it now treats it like a field - Thanks

I tried macropods post 'as is' but unsuccessfully - upon reflection i
thought changing the date format (long for pending to short for
history) would be more effective (and might even work ) - It still
doesn't work (just leaves empty field) and for a lot of reasons i
don't think it ever will:

News gets broken into pieces - i might be missing some subtle spacing
I'm in UK and MS Office struggles with the dates here
They are appointments so have to include time which must blow it's
mind e.g.
Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

It's a shame that when connected as DDE there's no option to adopt the
format since it is sitting in Excel exactly as intended

I might shift the Day of the Week to a seperate field incase this is
puzzling it
I might just get XL to add "Pending" to the end
I might try shifting all the data into MS Word table - One day )

Until then I think i'll just print it out and highlight all pending
appointments with a pen )


"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
Do you mean apart from using CTRL+F9 for the field boundaries {}?

In any case it is not going to work. You cannot compare dates like
that - and I seem to recall Macropod showing you how in another
thread; however life's too short to go looking for that thread on a
Sunday morning, so what you should have is presumably:

{IF{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "yyyyMMdd"} {Date \@
"yyyyMMdd"} "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}" "{MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "dd MM"}"}

See http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



JethroUK© wrote:
I have been experimenting with a mail merge field all night long and
have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what i
put e.g.
{IF{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime"} {DATE} {MERGEFIELD
"CSCS_Test_DateTime" \@ "ddd dd MM hh:mm"}
{MERGEFIELD "CSCS_Test_DateTime" dd MM}

The machine just doesn't not like the way i am entering them

They just sit there like a string of mis-spelled text - I know that
when entering array formulas in XL you have to use CTRL + ENTER

Is there some secret handshake that i'm missing?





  #9   Report Post  
Posted to microsoft.public.word.docmanagement,microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields,microsoft.public.word.newusers
Graham Mayor Graham Mayor is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 19,312
Default Is there a Special method to inserting fields?

JethroUK© wrote:
The source is e.g.

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM

{Mergefield "CSCS_Test_DateTime" } (after DDE connection) is same:

Thu 18 Oct 06:00 PM


What does the field produce with the default connection - ie what is the
underlying data in the source?

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



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
Is there a Special method to inserting fields? JethroUK© Microsoft Word Help 16 October 16th 07 04:19 PM
Is there a Special method to inserting fields? JethroUK© New Users 16 October 16th 07 04:19 PM
How do I retain special fields {} in a merge document? C Hayes Mailmerge 3 August 21st 07 09:10 PM
Inserting SEQ Fields SJT Microsoft Word Help 6 December 29th 06 07:08 PM
Inserting Merge Fields Karen Mailmerge 3 February 11th 05 12:29 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:26 PM.

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"