Problems with Mergefield Time format

Question

I am formatting times merged into Word from Excel using MERGEFIELD FINAL_START @ “h:mm AM\PM” For some reason, rather than returning either "AM" or "PM", it is returning "A12P12" for all records. Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

Your problem is caused by the use of AM\PM instead of am/pm in the switch. Word interprets the combination of \ and M as a month switch.

Hence, you should have:

MERGEFIELD FINAL_START @ "h:mm am/pm

See Mailmerge Time Formatting in the Mailmerge Tips & Tricks page at: Mailmerge Tips & Tricks (msofficeforums.com)

Answer 2

Figured it out. If I copy in the field codes it does not work. If I manually type in the field codes, it works just fine. Go Figure!!!!

Answer 3

If your first (Date) refers to the same field in Excel, try adding the time to it.

I.e.,

{ Mergefield FINALSTART \@ "dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy at h:mm AM\PM" }

The interface between Word formatting and Excel formatting can be tricky.

For more help with this, consider posting links to both an Excel file and the mail merge primary file here. They can be modified to remove confidential information but should demonstrate the problem.

Why a sample file is important for troubleshooting - - - - - - - and how to do it.

I do not know that the following will help, but they might.

• Mail merge using an Excel spreadsheet - Word
• Mailmerge Tips & Tricks