WD2000: How to Use Dates As a Mail Merge Selection (214214)

MORE INFORMATION

To use the selective merge function, follow these steps.

1. Set up the data document. For example:

   FRIENDS,BIRTHDATE
   Karan Khanna, 10-5-1940
   Jon Morris, 6/1/1926
   Megan Sherman, 5/26/1907

   NOTE: You can use forward slashes or dashes in the dates. If your data document is formatted as a table, you can also spell out the date (for example, June 1, 1926). Also, if you are using a tab- or comma-delimited text file as a data source, be sure to follow the conventions for formatting these types of files. For more information, see the "References" section later in this article. NOTE: The example companies, organizations, products, people, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.
   
   
2. Set up the main document. Create the formula you want, based on the examples below.
   
   NOTE: Using the IF field to set up a selective merge generates blank pages because the Merge command creates a document for each record it reads, whether the record meets the criteria in the IF statement or not.
   1. {IF {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM"}="October" "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM d, yyyy"}"}
      
      This example merges records for people born in October. The Birthdate field is formatted, for example, as October 5, 1940, regardless of the data format of the data document (October 5, 1940, or 10/5/1940, or 10/5/40).
   2. {IF {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MM"}="10" "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate}"}
      
      This example works the same as example a, except the birthdate prints exactly as it appears in the data document.
   3. {IF {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "yy"}="40" "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MM/dd/yy"}"}
      
      This example merges records for people born in 1940. The Birthdate field is formatted as 10/5/40.
   4. {IF {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ " yyyy"}="1940" "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "d-MMM-yy"}"}
      
      This example produces the same result as example c above, except the birthdate is formatted as 5-October-40.
   5. {IF {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM d, yyyy"}="October 5, 1940" "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate}"}
      
      This example merges only the records of people born on October 5, 1940.

NOTE: To enter the field brackets ({}), select Field on the Insert menu (or press CTRL+F9).

The examples above do not illustrate all possible selective merge combinations or date formats. To view the possible DATE field switches, follow these steps.

1. On the Insert menu, select Field.
2. In the Field dialog box, follow these steps:
   1. Under Categories, select Date and Time.
   2. Under Field names, click Date, and then click Options to see the available DATE field switches.

NOTE: It is not possible to set up a selective print merge that combines less-than or greater-than statements with dates, because Word interprets the dates as text. The dates do not have a numeric value that can be compared.

For example, the following formula does not work: