Mail Merge 12:00:00 AM for cells with a formula that is supposed to be blank

[ac66bronco]

Hey all.

Bit of a n00b when it comes to Mail Merge.

I am running into an issue where a cell is supposed to have a formula but the conditions of that formula are not met so it's supposed to not show data.

Example. =IF(K2<9," ",EDATE(V2,1)). K2 has 6 for a value so I want it to return nothing in that cell.

The problem arises with the Mail Merge. It is returning "12:00:00 AM" when I want it to behave as if the cell were totally blank.

Any advice?

 

[etaf]

thats a space not a blank
may still not work, as mail merge may see blanks as time 12:00 - excel does not when formatted as TIME - but the extraction into mail may extract blanks as zeros , lots of excel functions also do that
=IF(K2<9,"",EDATE(V2,1))

as it maybe seeing the " " as zero

whats in the cell with formula now ???

A SMALL sample spreadsheet, around 10-20 rows, would help a lot here, with all sensitive data removed, and expected results mocked up and manually entered, with a few notes of explanation.

This will possibly enable a quicker and more accurate solution for you.

MrExcel has a tool called “XL2BB” that lets you post samples of your data and will allow us to copy/paste your sample data into our Excel spreadsheets, saving a lot of time.

XL2BB - Excel Range to BBCode

Excel 'mini-sheet' in messages - XL2BB Although experts prefer to read your description and question instead of working in your actual file to solve your problem, there are times that it is difficult to explain an issue without providing actual...

www.mrexcel.com

You can also test to see if it works ok, in the "Test Here" forum.

Test Here

Use this forum to test your signature, learn bbcode, smilies, XL2BB, etc. Threads in this forum are automatically deleted after no replies for seven (7) days

www.mrexcel.com

OR if you cannot get XL2BB to work, or have restrictions on your PC

then put the sample spreadsheet onto a share

I only tend to goto OneDrive, Dropbox or google docs , as I'm never certain of other random share sites and possible virus.
Please make sure you have a representative data sample and also that the data has been desensitised, remember this site is open to anyone with internet access to see - so any sensitive / personal data should be removed

Make sure you set any share or google to share to everyone

 

[ac66bronco]

thats a space not a blank
may still not work, as mail merge may see blanks as time 12:00 - excel does not when formatted as TIME - but the extraction into mail may extract blanks as zeros , lots of excel functions also do that
=IF(K2<9,"",EDATE(V2,1))

as it maybe seeing the " " as zero

whats in the cell with formula now ???

A SMALL sample spreadsheet, around 10-20 rows, would help a lot here, with all sensitive data removed, and expected results mocked up and manually entered, with a few notes of explanation.

This will possibly enable a quicker and more accurate solution for you.

MrExcel has a tool called “XL2BB” that lets you post samples of your data and will allow us to copy/paste your sample data into our Excel spreadsheets, saving a lot of time.

XL2BB - Excel Range to BBCode

Excel 'mini-sheet' in messages - XL2BB Although experts prefer to read your description and question instead of working in your actual file to solve your problem, there are times that it is difficult to explain an issue without providing actual...

www.mrexcel.com

You can also test to see if it works ok, in the "Test Here" forum.

Test Here

Use this forum to test your signature, learn bbcode, smilies, XL2BB, etc. Threads in this forum are automatically deleted after no replies for seven (7) days

www.mrexcel.com

OR if you cannot get XL2BB to work, or have restrictions on your PC

then put the sample spreadsheet onto a share

I only tend to goto OneDrive, Dropbox or google docs , as I'm never certain of other random share sites and possible virus.
Please make sure you have a representative data sample and also that the data has been desensitised, remember this site is open to anyone with internet access to see - so any sensitive / personal data should be removed

Make sure you set any share or google to share to everyone

This actually worked! i just need to do a bit more tweaking! Thank you!

 

[etaf]

you are welcome

 

[ac66bronco]

But a new problem has arisen.

When the condition is met the Mail Merge is showing the numerical data of 45901 instead of 09/01/25

despite my formatting with

{ MERGEFIELD DUE_DATE_7\@ "MM/DD/YY" }

 

[etaf]

that is the date as excel sees it
not sure how mail merge works
BUT in excel you can change to text

TEXT( date cell , "MM/DD/YY" )

=IF(K2<9,"",TEXT(EDATE(V2,1),"MM/DD/YY" ))

 

[ac66bronco]

That worked! Thank you so much

 

[etaf]

you are welcome
just remember that now in that cell with the IF , its NOT a real date and just text - so cannot be used as a date in anywhere in excel without conversion , probably better to use EDATE(V2,1) rather then the cell with the IF