In Word, Tools, Options, General. Check Confirm Conversion on Open.
Repeat the merge, and select DDE during the opening of the Excel file
(applies to Access as well).
This is an example of something that worked fine and was broken by
Microsoft with Office 2002.
You can also use swithches in your merge fields, but this is far
simpler, and will hold for all future merges.

Rita Halporn wrote:

How do I maintain the format of numbers from excel once the data is merged
into a word document. I have tried "custom" formatting as well as numbers
with 2 decimal places but the numbers still come in incorrectly in the word
document, e.g. 129.9999999990 rather than 130.00 or if it is not a
calculated number, then it might come in as 130.0 rather than 130.00.

Any help is appreciated as I must use a Word table for the data doc rather
than excel until this is sorted out. Thanks.
Rita