My mail merged money field has too many decimal places, and/or isn’t displaying the dollar sign.
If you are experiencing this problem when mail merging an exported spreadsheet from DataMiner Platinum, simply changing the cell formatting will not fix the problem in Word. This is a flaw in the Microsoft mail merge system itself and takes a little bit of extra formatting to get it how you want it. During the mail merge process, your data is converted and some of the formatting is removed. The best way to fix this is to apply the formatting to the merge field of your document so that it is in place after your data is merged into your document.
Important: Press Alt-F9 to show the underlying field codes.
1. After pressing Alt-F9, your merge field will look similar to this:
{ MERGEFIELD DonationAmountYTD }
2. Add the following line after your field name within the brackets:
\# $,0.00
3. The contents of your brackets should now look like this:
{ MERGEFIELD DonationAmountYTD \# $,0.00 }
If you wish to preview the merged data in your document, you may need to press Alt-F9 again first.
My mail-merged date field is showing the time.
If you are experiencing this problem with a DonorSnap system field such as DonationDate, choose the DonationDateDisplay field in your mail merge instead. For user defined date fields, you will need to add a line to the mail merge field code similar to how you would above for a dollar amount. Open your finished Word mail merge document and follow the instructions below:
Important: Press Alt-F9 to show the underlying field codes.
1. After pressing Alt-F9, your merge field will look similar to this:
{ MERGEFIELD SampleDateField }
2. Add the following line after your field name within the brackets:
\@ “MM/dd/yyyy”
3. The contents of your brackets should now look like this:
{ MERGEFIELD SampleDateField \@ “MM/dd/yyyy” }
If you wish to preview the merged data in your document, you may need to press Alt-F9 again first.
Using “MM/dd/yyy” will display your date as 1/11/2013. You can also use “MMMM d, yyyy” to display your date as January 11, 2013. Simply replace “MM/dd/yyyy” with “MMMM d, yyyy”
My mail-merged user-defined field isn’t appearing in my letter.
Most likely because your user defined field has a Space in it.
User defined fields that have spaces in the field name can cause problems when using mail merge in Word. Word will automatically change the space to an underscore, even though it should be a space. You will need to rename the mail merge field to remove the underscore and add the space manually.
If you have already inserted the field into your letter, you will need to press Alt + F9 to switch the view to show the mail merge code. Now remove the underscore and add a space, press Alt + F9 again to return to the normal view, and save your document. Your user defined field will now merge into your Word document.
The formatting is off on my letter.
One of the most common reasons that a letter is generated incorrectly occurs when a .DOCX letter is uploaded into DonorSnap, but .DOC is selected as the output format. Make sure to match the correct output format with that of the mail merge letter. This will avoid the most common issues.
Another common issue stems around the use of text boxes. If at all possible, use columns, margins, breaks, and standard formatting instead of text boxes.
My summary mail-merged fields are not showing up in my letter.
Summary fields such as (SUM)DonationAmount or (MAX)DonationDate are compatible with the mail merge process, but they require some extra tweaking. The exported spreadsheet from DonorSnap will include (SUM), but for the mail merge to work correctly, the (SUM) portion needs to be manually removed from the field name. You can either do this by renaming the column title in your spreadsheet prior to adding your mail merge fields into your template. If you already added these fields into your template, press Alt-F9 to reveal the underlying field codes and then manually rename that merge field name.