|
|
Alice Bumgarner, Moderator
Alice Bumgarner, editor of Administrative Professional Today and contributing writer for Executive Leadership, has been writing about workplace and family issues for 13 years. Her articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including http://Salon.com, http://MSN.com, Continental magazine, Southern Living and Town & Country. She lives in Durham, N.C., with her husband, two daughters and dog Milo.
Submit a question for the Admin Pro Forum at Admin-Pro@NIBM.net.
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
See Comments Below
|
said this on 31 Jul 2009 3:19:24 PM EST
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.
|
|
said this on 31 Jul 2009 3:27:34 PM EST
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.
|
|
said this on 31 Jul 2009 4:41:48 PM EST
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.
|
|
said this on 31 Jul 2009 4:50:39 PM EST
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. |
|
said this on 03 Aug 2009 9:50:09 AM EST
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. |
|
said this on 04 Aug 2009 8:44:55 AM EST
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. |
|
said this on 04 Aug 2009 11:07:22 PM EST
The colon is still the norm. I haven't seen comma's in any business correspondence.
|
|
said this on 07 Aug 2009 3:20:25 PM EST
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.
|
|
said this on 07 Aug 2009 3:32:43 PM EST
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. |
|
|
Author/Admin)