Excel data does not retain its formatting in mail merge operations in Word

If you perform a mail merge in Microsoft Word and you use a Microsoft Excel worksheet as the data source for the recipient list, some of the numeric data may not retain its formatting when it is merged.

This behavior applies to formatted percentages, currency values, and postal codes, as shown in the following table:

This behavior occurs because the data in the recipient list in Word appears in the native format in which Excel stores it, without the formatting that is applied to the worksheet cells that hold the data.

To resolve this behavior, use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to connect to the Excel worksheet that contains the data that you want to use. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Word, and then open a new blank document.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the General tab.
3. Click to select the Confirm conversion at Open check box, and then click OK.
4. On the Tools menu, point to Letters and Mailings, and then click Mail Merge Wizard.
5. In the Mail Merge task pane, select the type of document that you want to work on, and then click Next.
6. Under Select starting document, select the starting document that you want to use, and then click Next.
7. Under Select recipients, click Use an existing list, and then click Browse.
8. In the Select Data Source dialog box, locate the folder that contains the Excel workbook that you want to use as your data source, select the workbook, and then click Open.
9. In the Confirm Data Source dialog box, click MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls), and then click OK.
10. In the Microsoft Excel dialog box, under Named or cell range, select the cell range or worksheet that contains the data that you want to use, and then click OK.
    NOTE: Your data now appears in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box with the same formatting that appears in the Excel worksheet.

Method 2

Format the Excel field that contains the ZIP Code/Postal Code as text. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Excel, select the column that contains the ZIP Code/Postal Code field.
2. On the Format menu, click Cells.
3. Click the Number tab.
4. Under Category, click Text, and then click OK.
5. Save the data source. Then, continue with the mail merge operation in Word.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: