Excel to Word Mail Merge Date showing as number

Hi Dean, The DDE option is a bit hidden.

Here's how you can enable it, In Word, go to File > Options > Advanced then scroll down to the General section then Check the box for "Confirm file format conversion on open".

Now, when you set up your mail merge and select your Excel file, you'll get a prompt. choose "DDE" as the connection method.

This usually helps preserve the original formatting from Excel. Let me know if that works for you.

Chard

Hi Dean, Word is likely reading the Excel date as a serial number. Try updating your merge field like this: { MERGEFIELD YourDateField @ "MM/dd/yyyy" * MERGEFORMAT }

Also, double-check that the Excel column is formatted as a proper date not text or general.

If that still doesn’t work, consider re-linking the Excel source using DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) in Word’s mail merge setup. It often preserves formatting better.

Chard

Hi Dean, thanks for posting here in the Microsoft community, it sounds like Word is reading the date as a serial number from Excel.

Try updating your merge field like this: { MERGEFIELD YourDateField @ "MM/dd/yyyy" * MERGEFORMAT }

Also, make sure the date column in Excel is formatted as a proper date, not as text or general.

Also, to better understand, have you recently updated Office or changed the Excel file format (e.g., from .xls to .xlsx)?

I hope this helps you out, let me know

Chard