How to solve number formatting problem in mail merge

Common problem.

Solution is to use TEXT function.

Estimated reading time 3 min

The Problem

Look at the data in Excel. The date and amount column has custom formatting.

Now if we use this data in Mail Merge using Word, the data is shown correctly – but the formatting is NOT shown. This is a big issue.

Solution

Add another column for each formatted column and translate the NUMBER formatting into simple text using the TEXT function.

How does the text function work? Well, it takes the custom format which we put in the Format Cells dialog as a parameter and produces text output.

Now that you know this concept, you can use it to your advantage. Use the Text function to apply the desired formatting to the original column and use this TEXT function based columns in the Word Mail Merge document. That’s it.