Mail Merge Format Codes

Wise Owl mail merging supports many of the default mail merge format codes.

These switches and format codes should only be used if you have had experience with mail merge in Microsoft Word. Editing the switches can cause inconsistencies within your Document templates

String Format: (MERGEFIELD Description \* "UPPER")

This format is the same as the word option. Here are some examples:

Number Format: (MERGEFIELD Total_GST \# "###0.0")

This format is the same as the word option. This format uses the characters '$', '#', ',', '.', '0' to define the format of the number.

Here are some examples:

If you would like to learn more about this format or more specifically the number format strings we use internally visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0c899ak8(v=vs.110).aspx .

Date Format: (MERGEFIELD CreatedDate \@ "dd-mm-yy")

This format string type is the same as word. Here are some examples:

Once again if you would like to learn more about date format strings we use internally visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4(v=vs.110).aspx .

Below are the new merge field format options that we have added to our mail merge.

Image Format: (MERGEFIELD Our_Logo \& "54") 

The number in this format type as the example above represents the image scale as a percentage. The number must be between 2 and 1500 inclusive, any more or less than this would cause an error.

For example a number of "43" would scale an image to 43% of its normal size.

Contact Format: (MERGEFIELD ContactsOfType_Client \^ "TFLK)

Note: This tag can be mixed with the string format tag, but this tag needs to be later. (MERGEIFLED \* "lower" \^ "TFL")

Note: Each contact's information is separated by the character ';' (semi colon).

There are 2 main ways of retrieving the data from contacts.

The first way involves a single letter code for the main fields:

For this list there are some rules with how the fields are displayed:

• These fields will be separated by spaces

• If the last name is before the first name, the last name has a trailing comma

• If these tags are called on a company they will be replaced with the company name.

• If the address tag is used it will always be at the end of the contact info and start with 'of '.

• If the known as field is use it will show the KnownAs if it exists inside '(' ')' brackets. It will always be at the end of the contact details but before the address.

Here are some examples of the use of the first contact format type:

The second way of listing contacts is using a single tag from this list:

If you use a second tag the template will not be valid.