Looking through the information you pointed me to it
seems I can add additional text information etc

Well, only really if you connect using DDE, which has its problems,
including
a. you can only get data from the first sheet
b. you have to have Excel on the machine (a consideration for some
applications but I would guess not yours)
c. Word has to start Excel if it's not already running
d. On Vista at least, Word sometimes fails to connect to the data
source, especially if it is on a network drive

Since it was also "deprecated" a long time ago, I've got to the point
now where I prefer not to suggest it, but unfortunately there are still
plenty of scenarious in which ist's the only good option when working
with an arbitrary Excel file.

In Word, to select DDE,
a. go to Office button-Word options-Advanced-General (near the
bottom) and check "Confirm file format conversion on open"
b. go through the connection process again. In the dialog titled
"Confirm Data Source", with a .xls you should be offered the DDE option.
With a .xlsx/.xlsm, you have to check "Show ALl" and look down the list.

Then it's typically a question of either putting exactly what you want
in the worksheet, or if necessary using IF fields to detect specific
non-date values in the worksheet (e.g. blank) and replacing it with the
value you want.

There are other possible ways to do this, but they are more likely to
require you to modify your approach in Excel or to copy/paste your data
into a new Word document and use that as your data source.

I realise your other questions have a bearin gon all this, but right now
I'll try to answer them in isolation.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

On 25/03/2010 11:51, Andy Roberts wrote:
Peter this is exactly what I needed once I managed to get my head around
it - thank you ever so much

Can I have the merge field display blank when the data source contains a
specific text string. Looking through the information you pointed me to it
seems I can add additional text information etc but there is no example
where for example I have dates in my data source but for some reason a date
value isnt applicable so we input N/A. This then comes through on the mail
merge, but can I set a switch which means that if the Date_required field
contains N/A then nothing is displayed?