Change Mail Merge Date Format from US to UK

[Evanaught]

Hi,



When I merge the data source with the document, the date format changes from UK format: 25/01/1984 (as it is entered in the Excel data source), to the US format: 01/25/1984, when it appears in the document. It's a big problem, as I'm creating multiple documents and I can't keep manually changing it everytime I need to. Very time consuming!

Is it possible to change the format?? I've tried just about everything (or so I think...)

Your help would be much appreciated

Evan

[macropod]

To get the date format you want, you can add a formatting picture switch as follows:
• select the mergefield;
• press Shift-F9 to expose the field coding. It should look something like {MERGEFIELD MyDate} where 'MyDate' is your mergefield's name;
• delete anything appearing after the mergefield's name and add '\@ "d MMMM yyyy"' to the field, as in {MERGEFIELD MyDate \@ "d MMMM yyyy"}. With this switch your date will come out as '2 August 2008'.
• position the cursor anywhere in this field and press F9 to update it;
• run your mailmerge.

Other possible date formatting switches include:
. \@ "dddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "ddd, d MMMM yyyy";
. \@ "d MMM yyyy";
. \@ "dd/MMM/yyyy";
. \@ "d-MM-yy".
Note: You can swap the d, M, y expressions around, but you must use uppercase 'M's for months - lowercase 'm's are for minutes.