Using Word as the word processor

I would like to use Word as the word processor for some of the documents I create. Max Editor is sufficient for most things but my agency uses a lot of forms that have tables in them, that we would like to reproduce.
When I try to create a document (with merge fields) in Word--using the Merge Field selector, instead of the merge fields, the current client field data is entered, e.g., instead of the first name merge field being entered, the first name was entered. Also, as each merge field was placed the selector closed and had to be reopened for each field required. Any suggestions?