Microsoft has not removed any of the older mail merge functions from Word 2010. Some of them however are less accessible.
What do you mean in this context as a 'formatting table'?
If you mean include formatting in the data: From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. (In Word 2010 it is File > Options > Advanced > General > Confirm file format conversion on open). Then when you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, you will be given the option of using the DDE method of connection which should read the data as you have it formatted in the table.
However Microsoft changed the default connection method for good reasons, not least of which was that DDE is somewhat flaky. It is therefore better to use the default connection and provide the formatting in the merge document itself - see
http://www.gmayor.com/formatting_word_fields.htm
You can then use Excel as your data source, which tends to give better results all round, where it can be used.