WD: How to Use Dates as Mail Merge Selection Criteria

ID: Q89532

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Word, you can perform a selective mail merge based on a list of dates. For example, you can merge records based on such criteria as a group of months, days of months, years or combinations of all three. For example, you can perform a selective mail merge based on a list of names and birth dates.

In addition, you can instruct Word to change the date format of data in the merged document.

MORE INFORMATION

To use the selective merge function:

1. Set up the data document. For example: 

      FRIENDS,BIRTHDATE
      Karan Khanna, 10-5-1940
      Jon Morris, 6/1/1926
      Megan Sherman, 5/26/1907

   NOTE: You can use either forward slashes or dashes in the dates. If
   your data document is formatted as a table, you can also spell out
   the date (for example, "June 1, 1926").

   NOTE: The example companies, organizations, products, people, and events
   depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company,
   organization, product, person, or event is intended or should be
   inferred.
2. Set up the main document: 

   a. {if {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM"}="October" "{MERGEFIELD
      Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM d, yyyy"}"}

      This example merges records for people born in October. The
      Birthdate field is formatted as "October 5, 1940", regardless
      of the data format of the data document (October 5, 1940, or
      10/5/1940, or 10/5/40).

   b. {if {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MM"}="10" "{MERGEFIELD Friends}
      {MERGEFIELD Birthdate}"}

      This example works the same as example a, except that the Birthdate
      prints exactly as it appears in the data document.

   c. {if {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "yy"}="40" "{MERGEFIELD Friends}
      {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MM/dd/yy"}"}

      This example merges records for people born in 1940. The Birthdate
      field is formatted as "10/5/40."

   d. {if {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ " yyyy"}="1940"
      "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "d-MMM-yy"}"}

      Same result as example 3 above, except that the Birthdate prints in
      "5-October-40" format.

   e. {if {MERGEFIELD Birthdate \@ "MMMM d, yyyy"}="October 5, 1940"
      "{MERGEFIELD Friends} {MERGEFIELD Birthdate}"}

      Merges only the records of people born on October 5, 1940.
NOTE: To enter the field brackets ({}), choose Field from the Insert menu (or press CTRL+F9 in Windows or COMMAND+F9 in Macintosh).

These examples do not illustrate all possible selective merge combinations or date formats. To view all possible DATE field switches, choose field from the Insert menu. Under Categories, select Date And Time, under Field Names, select Date, and then click Options. All the possible date switch combinations appear in the Instructions box.

It is not possible to do a selective print merge using less than or greater than statements based on dates because Word interprets the dates as text. The dates in Word do not have a numerical value that can be compared.

For example this will NOT work:

{ if {MERGEFIELD mydate \@ "M/d/yy"} > "4/15/97 "true" "false" }

For information on working with dates, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 

     ARTICLE ID: Q122842
     TITLE: WD: How to Perform Calculations with Dates and Times

     ARTICLE ID: Q105537
     TITLE: WD: How to Determine the Number of Days Between Two Dates

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word for Windows User's Guide," version 2.0, pages 609-656, 751.

Additional query words: conditional pmh 

Keywords          : word8 kbfield macword98 winword kbmerge macword word6 winword2 word7 word95 
Version           : WINDOWS:2.0,2.0a,2.0a- CD,2.0b,2.0c,6.0,6.0a,6.0c,7.0,7.0a;MACINTOSH:6.0,6.0.1,6.0.1a,98
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: January 7, 1999