Thanks for the suggestion, I will try it. It would be extremely helpful to be able to maintain only one set of documents.

It is because dde does not work that I have this problem.

In 2013 dde does not work, during mail merge it closes the Access application after one document has been printed making it impossible to use in my application. I had to change the mail merge data transfer method and dump the contents of the query into a text file. The text file does not carry formatting for date/time, currency or support this If statement. DDe carried all the formatting from the Query, it being tailor made for use with Access.

So I have had to change the formatting in hundreds of documents, and so end up maintaining 2 sets of documents. All prior versions of Office before 2013 allowed the use of dde, 2013 does not.

I find your suggestions very helpful in finding alternative syntax for these problems. Thanks.