using Japanese addresses in mailmerge yields reverse data

all addresses in the excel sheet work with mail merge in word, but the
japanese addresses come out in reverse order: name, company, city, country
the exact reverse of all other addresses in the sheet.

I guess that you are using the Address Block field.

I guess that you are using the Address Block field.  Instead of doing that,
just insert the actual merge fields in the configuration that you want them.

However, if the data has been entered incorrectly in the data source, you
will either have to correct it or you maybe able to work around it by using
an If...then...Else field construction that checks for the country Japan in
what ever field that it is appearing in and then uses a configuration of
merge fields that gives the desired result in that case, or uses a different
configuration if the country is not Japan.

{ IF { MERGEFIELD nameoffieldthatreturnsJapan } = "Japan" "{ MERGEFIELD
firstmergefieldforJapanaddress}??
{ MERGEFIELD secondmergefieldforJapanaddress }??
...??
{ MERGEFIELD lastmergefieldforJapanaddress }" "{ MERGEFIELD
firstmergefieldfornonJapanaddress }??
{ MERGEFIELD secondmergefieldfornonJapanaddress }??
...??
{ MERGEFIELD lastmergefieldfornonJapanaddress }" }

You must use Ctrl+F9 to insert each pair of field delimiters { } and where
the ?? appears in the above, press the enter key.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

There is ausually a strong case for using individual fields as Dougsuggests,

There is ausually a strong case for using individual fields as Doug
suggests, but if you are using the ADDRESSBLOCK, it is probably worth
using Alt-F9 to display the field code and see whether the \d and \l
switches are in there. At least one of those settings may have an impact
on how Japanese addresses are displayed. I cannot tell you much more than
that, I am afraid - for example, I do not know how Japnese addresses are
normally laid out in Japan.

AIUI this stuff works better in Word 2007 than it does in Word 2003 but
that is about it.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk