Mail merge and Excel

John_Miller_33501710 

You can try the following alternative approach:

1. In your Excel data source, create a new column next to the date column.
2. In the new column, use the formula =TEXT(A1, "dd/MM/yyyy") (assuming the date column is in column A and the first row of data is row 1). This formula will convert the dates to the desired format.
3. Copy the formula down to apply it to all the rows containing dates.
4. Save and close the Excel file.

Now, when performing the mail merge in Microsoft Word, follow these steps:

1. Open your Word document and go to the "Mailings" tab.
2. Click on the "Select Recipients" button and choose "Use an Existing List."
3. Browse to select your modified Excel data source file (the one with the additional column) and click "Open."
4. In the "Mail Merge Recipients" dialog box, make sure that the new column with the formatted dates is recognized correctly.
5. Click "OK" to close the "Mail Merge Recipients" dialog box.
6. Insert the formatted date field from the new column into your document using the "Insert Merge Field" button in the "Write & Insert Fields" section of the "Mailings" tab.
7. Complete the mail merge as usual.

By creating a new column in Excel and using the TEXT function to convert the dates to the desired format, you provide Word with the formatted dates during the mail merge process. This should help retain the correct date format in the merged document.