Thank you Paul. I replaced my merge field with your's but I am still getting 12:00 PM in this field.

So I am clear, should the Excel workbook be open or closed when merging? I get frustrated when a report can work one time, but not another. For instance, just now when testing your latest suggestion, the Page {PAGE} of {NUMPAGES} field in my footer has stopped working. In some reports no problem, but now, problem.

Is there a way the mail merge document should be saved? Alt-F9 view? Preview mode? Does it make a difference? Maybe thats where I am going wrong.