How do I get my mail merge to keep date formatting from excel to word?

Question

I have an excel file with a date column (box is formatted as a date). When I mail merge into word, the date changes formatting into number. All other fields merge fine.

I've tried.

Answer 1

Hi,

I suggest you try the method of Ashish Mathur from this thread, enter a formula to create the date column and mail merge the date column with the formula comlumn:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/mail-merge-date-format-from-excel/4f2d67d1-d50d-4a32-bf15-fdd39d5d3ab4

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Answer 2

Hi @Devon Kerger

On my test environment, this issue is not reproduced. I suggest you make sure the Excel workbook is closed before running Mail Merge.

• In Word, please press Alt + F9, show us the field code, like '{MERGEFIELD <date field>}'.
• In Excel, please select one date cell, then take a screenshot of the formula bar that displays the selected cell's content.
• Besides, please check whether the date format is the one of your Windows system date.

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Answer 3

The comment that was deleted was the solution to my problem!

"Hi @Devon Kerger On my test environment, this issue is not reproduced. I suggest you make sure the Excel workbook is closed before running Mail Merge. In Word, please press Alt + F9, show us the field code, like '{MERGEFIELD <date field>}'. In…

Hopefully this helps someone else. All I had to do was close Excel first and then open the Word document alone and it no longer turned my date into number format.