Comments on: Mail Merge formatting issues in Word: causes and fixes

Using Word's Mail Merge to automate the creation of a document from an Excel worksheet may present lots of challenges. Our troubleshooting tips will help you fix typical formatting problems. Continue reading →

Comments page 2. Total comments: 55

  1. Your explanation for "How to use Dynamic Data Exchange to connect to Excel sheet" doesn't work for me, as the options under "General" look nothing like what your screen shot does. Specifically, there is no, "Confirm file format conversion on open"

    I am using Outlook 365.

    Perhaps this option is found elsewhere in my version?

    1. Hi Craig,

      Please read the instructions carefully: "Before starting a mail merge, perform the following steps in Microsoft Word." Word, not Outlook :)

      I have just checked the "General" section in my Word 365 - the "Confirm file format conversion on open" option is first in the list, exactly as shown in the screenshot.

  2. My mail merge value keeps displaying 12:00:00AM even if the values are text.

    The same exact data from another cell shows the text just fine.

    Tried to change the cell format to "text".

    Also tried to restart my computer but it still displays the time.

  3. Thank you. A 1000 times over! We think we know something... and then BAM! Magical options to make things easier- hidden in secret places, if we only care to ask.
    Thank you for taking the time to put together these very detailed instructions. Your blog is awesome.

  4. Very useful description, thanks :) If I want a syntax error (division by zero, empty field), I want an empty field to appear in the mail merge. How can I do this?

  5. (-30,000). I want to remove this negative (-)/pyphen from mail merge in word file.

  6. Dear Sir/Madam,
    Please let me know the reason for the missing footer and header in the individual documents when mailing merges from Excel data to Word document.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Murty

  7. Thanks a lot, this saved me a lot of time!

  8. Thank you!!! That percentage/decimal point had me figuring it out for about an hour. This is exactly what I needed to get my mail merge to calculate the correct percentage. You're awesome!

  9. Using Mailmerge to create a directory of "Contacts" with names, address, phone numbers, eMail addresses in several rows of a table ... how do I get the entries to appear immediately under the under previous table entry, instead of one entry on each page ? ... thanks

  10. The Ctrl+F9 doesn't work for me. Is there another option to get the brackets?

    1. For PC's, it's ALT + F9 (not Control)

  11. In 50 page mail merge word document various dates with different title mentioned in mm/dd/yyyy, while in input excel sheet every date format is "dd/mm/yyyy". how to change all date formats in mail merge word document in one time in dd/mm/yyyy format. If i use to insert switch in merge field {/@"d/M/yyyy"} in every page, it will waste my time. Please suggest me best solution for this.

  12. Thanks for your kindly advisement.
    "Mail merge: percentage format" helped me to fix my issue

  13. i am encountering errors in Inserting mergefield, For example,

    From excell
    GP05/17/1999

    To Word
    12:00

    how do i fix this error or how shall i avoid this automatic convertions? Thanks a lot

  14. Thank you, its very helpfull

  15. Thank you very much!
    Your instructions is very, very useful!
    Thanks again!

  16. SOOOOO Helpful! Thank you for your clear instructions. These worked perfectly!

  17. Great details on formatting. Each time I upgrade Office versions I get more "features" I need to work around. I discovered after hours of trial and error the the need to select "confirm file format" in the 2010 upgrade. Now with the 2016 upgrade I am finding selecting previously working XL files gives an error of "Word could not re-establish a DDE connection to Microsoft Excel to complete the current task." I also get a dialog box for at least 2 minutes stating "Updating Office, please wait a moment.." every time I try to link an existing XL file. A partial work around has been to open the excel file first before linking and SOMETIMES this works but not always. Is there another trick needed to get around this 2016 "feature"? In the 2010 version this never happens

    I resists upgrades since every time there are hidden changes that slow down or stop work. I would really appreciate any assistance you can give to assist anyone with this error.

  18. Inv. Date
    44700

    date of invoice come in numeric format in mail merge i want to convert it in date formate

  19. I have a number merged into a word doc from an excel sheet. the number appears perfectly in excel as a whole number percentage (ex. 97%) but when I merge into the word doc, it appears as 0.96399999999.

    How do I format it to look like it does in excel? as a whole number percent?

    what is the formula or switch code to use?

    1. Hi Connie,

      To get the percentage to display correctly, you can either use Dynamic Data Exchange to connect to your Excel sheet or perform the steps described in Mail merge: percentage format.

  20. Hi Team,

    Question Font alignment while preparing mail merge from Excel to Word, not sure why the font style shown differently on word document after mail merged.

  21. This works until I save the file. When I reopen a saved version these commands have disappeared.

  22. Except step 5 does not happen in MS Word

  23. Great here

  24. In this section "How to use Dynamic Data Exchange to connect to Excel sheet" in the fifth step, I will encounter the following message. Why?

    word can not re-establish a DDE connection to MS excel to Complete to current task

    1. The above sentence was a question

  25. THIS BLOG IS VERY INFORMATIVE.....

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