Question: “I've just learned the mail merge application on Microsoft Office/Word 2003. After the salutation, the software automatically inserts a comma (i.e., Dear Mr. Jones,). I was taught to use a colon rather than a comma. Now that we are in the 21st century has the colon been dropped in favor of the comma? My mail merge will not let me substitute a colon for a comma.” — Anonymous
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When I receive a letter business or otherwise I could care less what’s there.
I agree that it is the writers preference. The English language is going to drive us all crazy.
I recently took a course in business writing and it was acceptable to use a comma. I guess to be safe, old fashioned may be the way to go.
The colon is still the norm. I haven’t seen comma’s in any business correspondence.
Thank you Lisa; I didn’t know that either. I see the comma used often lately and whenever a letter comes to me for proof-reading, I change that to a colon (my preference). And, I think that’s all it is now, a personal preference.
In my view, you would use a comma when using only the first name and not using the word Dear in front of it, in which case, you would then use a colon.
When you insert a greeting line from the Mail merge task pane (or the tool bar) in Word 2003, you get a dialog box with the options to change the word “dear,” to change how the name appears and to change the comma to a colon or vice versa.
Alternatively, you set up the text part of your document however you want and you only insert the field itself instead of using the “greeting line” feature.
Interesting, NRC.
A colon after the saluation of a business letter is NOT passé in the United States. I regret to say the problem is the program you are using. It has so many flaws and is a real pain to work in! Wish I had a fix for you, other than recommending WordPerfect instead.
I think its more a matter of tradition and fashion. In the US, the colon is used. In the UK, a comma is used after the salutation.
If you work for a more “informal-type” institution, then the colon is usually replaced by a comma. In this type of situation being more “business formal” can you get you into trouble. I know, because it happened to me when I first came to this field.
The colon with a salutation is still used in business correspondence. A comma would be used in a personal letter. I’m not sure why you’re program is defaulting to a comma – it may be in the set up of your mail merge. Hopefully someone else can repond on how to change the comma to a colon.