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MS Word Merge from Excel - Text fields

Anonymous
2025-02-21T03:16:42+00:00

Hi all,

I am trying to do a multiline mail merge from excel to word and when i code the formulae into work

it is turning up as text.

Merge fields are First, second, address, suburb etc, contractor, date.

When i use the "Insert Merge Field" it is giving me the info from excel sheet.

However I need to set the contract field as my multiline control. So when i originally used

{ MERGEFIELD contract }{ SET LID1 = "{ MERGEFIELD contract }"

Instead of showing the merge field it showed exactly as typed.

So I then used the "Insert Merge Field" with <

and the above is what I got.

I field I am missing something somewhere.

Could someone please help ??

Thank you in advance.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-21T04:09:14+00:00

    You can't simply type the field braces (i.e. {}); they are created via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac or, if you’re using a laptop, you might need to use Ctrl-Fn-F9)

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-21T06:00:17+00:00

    I'm not sure what you mean by " I clicked Ctl + F9". Ctrl-F9 is a keyboard combination. When used, it will create a pair of field braces (i.e. { }). And, as I said, depending on your system, you might need to use Ctrl-Fn-F9

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-02-23T22:37:12+00:00

    Thanks macropod.

    I was using Ctrl+F9 and it was only showing the merge fields.

    The Ctrl_Fn+F9 worked a treat.

    Thanks.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 322.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-21T07:11:34+00:00

    Use the Many to One Facility on my Merge Tools Add-in that is contained in the MERGE TOOLS ADD-IN.zip file that you can download from:

    https://mergetoolsaddin.com/

    Extract the files from the archive and read the:

    “READ ME – Setting up and using the Merge Tools Add-in.pdf

    to see how to install and use the various tools.

    Using those tools, it is possible to perform the following types of merge that cannot be done with Mail Merge “out-of-the-box”:

    • Merge to e-mail messages either with or without attachments, with the documents created by the merge being sent as either Word or PDF attachments or as the body of the e-mail message .  The email messages can, if necessary, also be sent to CC and BCC addresses and the subject of the message can include data from a field in the data source.
    • Merge to individual documents in either Word or PDF format with the filenames being supplied by the data in one of the fields in the data source
    • Many to One type merges, which can be used for creating documents such as invoices where there are multiple records in the data source that have common data in one of the fields
    • Merging to a document that will include a chart that is unique to each record in the data source
    • Merging a document with Content Controls
    • Merging a document that contains Legacy FormFields
    • Duplex Merges
    • Merging to a printer that will collate and staple the output created from each record in the data source.

    The requirements for using the system are:

    • The mail merge main document must be of the Letters type, though that does not mean that the output cannot be sent as an e-mail message where relevant.
    • For the Many To One, Merge with Attachments and Merge to Individual Docs utilities, the data source may be either a table or query in an Access database, or in the form of an Excel worksheet. For the Chart Merge utility, see the Mail Merging with Charts document that is included in the Merge Tools Add-in Zip file for additional requirements for the data source for use with that utility
    • For a data source in the form of an Excel worksheet, the field names must be in the first row of the worksheet and there must be a field name in all of the cells in that row that are within the range of columns that contain the data.
    • For both types of data source, the field names must contain only alphanumeric characters (No @,#,$,%,&,(,), etc) and the field names must not start with a numeric character (0-9). The number of characters in the field names, including spaces, must not be more than 40.
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  3. Anonymous
    2025-02-21T05:54:01+00:00

    Thank you for your reply.

    So I clicked Ctl + F9 once before typing.

    That did not work.

    So would I need to Ctl+F9 before I put in each { ?

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