[Steve]

I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge. The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into a Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the default for
Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field formatting (but
does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge. The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into a Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve]

Can I force the Zip field in Excel to always be five digits? If so, I do I do
this?

I was hoping your response would be to format the zip field different than
ZIP Code.

Thanks

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the default for
Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field formatting (but
does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge. The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into a Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't understand the question. I was assuming that the ZIP codes in your
Excel data source were already correct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I force the Zip field in Excel to always be five digits? If so, I do I
do
this?

I was hoping your response would be to format the zip field different than
ZIP Code.

Thanks

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the default for
Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field formatting (but
does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm
conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field
formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge.
The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into a
Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the
leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve]

Yes, the zip codes in the spreadsheet are correct. For examples 03110 is
fine. However, when it shows up in the Word label report is shows as 3110.
As you can see, the Word label report has lost the leading zero.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

I don't understand the question. I was assuming that the ZIP codes in your
Excel data source were already correct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I force the Zip field in Excel to always be five digits? If so, I do I
do
this?

I was hoping your response would be to format the zip field different than
ZIP Code.

Thanks

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the default for
Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field formatting (but
does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm
conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field
formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge.
The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into a
Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the
leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In that case you use one of the two solutions offered in my previous reply.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Yes, the zip codes in the spreadsheet are correct. For examples 03110 is
fine. However, when it shows up in the Word label report is shows as
3110.
As you can see, the Word label report has lost the leading zero.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

I don't understand the question. I was assuming that the ZIP codes in
your
Excel data source were already correct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I force the Zip field in Excel to always be five digits? If so, I
do I
do
this?

I was hoping your response would be to format the zip field different
than
ZIP Code.

Thanks

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the default
for
Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field formatting
(but
does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm
conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field
formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail merge.
The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file into
a
Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the
leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve

[Graham Mayor]

As Suzanne has already indicated, the default OLE DB interconnnection method
accesses pnly the raw data from Excel. It completely ignores your formatting
and thus leading zeros are stripped. You can revert to the older DDE
connection method, but it is a rather flaky method of connection and does
not always work reliably, so the simple solution is to use a formatting
switch. This is covered under the zip code section of the link Suzanne has
already posted 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



Steve wrote:
Yes, the zip codes in the spreadsheet are correct. For examples
03110 is fine. However, when it shows up in the Word label report is
shows as 3110. As you can see, the Word label report has lost the
leading zero.

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

I don't understand the question. I was assuming that the ZIP codes
in your Excel data source were already correct.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
Can I force the Zip field in Excel to always be five digits? If so,
I do I do
this?

I was hoping your response would be to format the zip field
different than ZIP Code.

Thanks

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

This is a flaw in the OLE DB connection used by Word as the
default for Excel data sources. You have two options:

1. You can connect via DDE instead, which preserves field
formatting (but does not pass any upper Unicode characters).

2. You can add a "numeric picture" switch to the merge field.

In order to be able to select DDE, you need to enable "Confirm
conversion
at Open" in Tools | Options | General. For information on field
formatting,
see http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Steve" wrote in message
...
I have an Excel 2003 spreadsheet with address ready for a mail
merge. The
format of the ZIP field is "ZIP CODE". I then merge this file
into a Word
2003 label document.

All zip codes with leading zeros (e.g. 03110) print without the
leading
zero. Yet a five digit code such as 90123 prints fine.

What could be the cause of this?

Thanks,

Steve