WD97: How to Use Dates as Mail Merge Selection Criteria

MORE INFORMATION

To use the selective merge function, do the following:

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: Note: Using the If field in the document to do a selective merge will generate blank papers. This is by design; the merge command will create a document for each record read, whether or not the record meets the criteria in the IF statement.
   
   
   1. {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).
   2. {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.
   3. {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."
   4. {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.
   5. {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).

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" }