Format a merge field with 22 digits

[mason1100]

Hello,

I am having trouble with formatting a merge field with 22 digits. It is a tracking number and it should show as such:

0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00

I understand that the \# "0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00" will not work due to the merge field containing over 15 digits... Is there someone who could assist with a field construction for this merge field format?

Thanks in advance!

[gmayor]

Convert the formatted data to text (easily achieved in Excel) and there will be no need for a switch.

[mason1100]

How would I achieve this in Word? That is where we are running the mail merge.

[gmayor]

You cannot do this in Word. You need to fix it in the data source. The most common data source for merge is Excel, hence my suggestion.

[mason1100]

Thanks for the information!

[gmayor]

I have had a thought about this. If you use Merge and Split or E-Mail Merge Add-in to create the merge, you could run a macro from the process to address the formatting e.g.

Sub FixID(oDoc As Document)
Dim oRng As Range
Const strFormat As String = "0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 00"
    Set oRng = oDoc.Range
    With oRng.Find
        Do While .Execute(findText:="<[0-9]{22}>", MatchWildcards:=True)
            oRng.Text = Format(oRng.Text, strFormat)
        Loop
    End With
End Sub