Microsoft Word 2003

Mail Merge: Retaining Decimal Formatting of Values

If you are using a Microsoft Excel worksheet as a data source to perform a mail merge, some of the numeric data may not retain its formatting. Most commonly this occurs with percentages, currency values, and postal codes happens because the data appears in the native format, without the formatting that is applied to the Excel worksheet cells that hold the data. To ensure that numeric values retain their decimal formatting when merged you will be using Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to connect the Excel worksheet

These instructions assume that you have and understanding of the Word Mail Merge process and that are choosing letter as your document type.

Important: Before you start

If your Excel workbook contains multiple worksheets, the worksheet containing the data you want to merge must be selected (active).
The field names of your Excel database must begin in the upper left corner of your worksheet, cell A1 (the first row and column).

Open a blank Word Document
From the Tools menu, select Options...
The Options dialog box appears.
Select the General tab
Select Confirm conversion at Open
Click OK
From the Tools menu, select Letters and Mailings » Mail Merge...
The Mail Merge task pane appears.
Under Select document type, select Letters
Click NEXT: STARTING DOCUMENT
Under Select Starting document, select Use the current document
Click NEXT: SELECT RECIPIENTS
Under Select recipients, select Use an existing list
To retrieve an existing recipient list,
1. Under Use an existing list, click BROWSE...
  The Select Data Source dialog box appears.
2. From the Look in pull-down list, locate and select the Excel workbook you will use for your list
3. Click OPEN
  The Confirm Data Source dialog box appears.
4. Select MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)
5. Click OK
  A Microsoft Excel dialog box appears.
6. Under Named or cell range, select the cell range or worksheet that contains the data that you want to use
7. Click OK
  The Mail Merge Recipient dialog box appears.
8. Select the recipient(s) you want to include in your mail merge
  NOTE: To edit the recipient information, refer to Working with the Recipient List.
9. Click OK
Click NEXT: WRITE YOUR LETTER
If you have not already done so, write your letter and insert the variable fields
When finished, click NEXT: PREVIEW YOUR LETTERS
A preview of your first recipient appears.
NOTES:
For more information on editing the recipient information, refer to Working with the Recipient List.
To remove a recipient from the mail merge, under Make changes, click EXCLUDE THIS RECIPIENT.
Click NEXT: COMPLETE THE MERGE