Unable to format field font - HELP!

[smarsh]

Hi,

I haven't used mail merge in years. I looked up a lot of help directly from MS and with a little extra figuring out, have my merge working for labels. The problem now is that it doesn't accept my field formatting. I want a 36 point bold first name and 18 point bold last name.

I format the fields just like I would any other text in Word, but when it merges, the formatting is gone. I've looked it up here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/wo...101830917.aspx but nothing works.

This image shows my field layout where I applied formatting to the first label, for explanation, but I've done it to all.

Can someone please tell me how to get this done?

Thank you!

[macropod]

Select the first two «First» & «Last» mergefields, then press Sift-F9. You should see:
{MERGEFIELD First} & {MERGEFIELD Last}
Edit these to show:
{MERGEFIELD First \* Charformat} & {MERGEFIELD Last \* Charformat}
and format the 'M' in each of the 'MERGEFIELD' strings with the font attributes you require. When you're done, click on 'Update Labels', then run your merge.

[smarsh]

Thanks. Why just the "M"?

[macropod]

Because the \* Charformat switch only queries the first character. Formatting on that character makes understanding the field code much easier when reviewing later on if the output is to be, say, a barcode or a wingding, than having the entire field (or even just MERGEFIELD) in such a font.