What is the maximum number of merge fields allowed in a template?

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Schardenzar - 06 Jun 2006 18:36 GMT

Does anyone know the maximum number fo merge fields allowed in a merge
template for Word 2003?

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 06 Jun 2006 19:29 GMT

It will probably be dictated by the datasource - about 63 if it's a Word
document, 255 if it's an Excel Spreadsheet or Table in Access. Possibly no
limit with a text file as the data source.

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> Does anyone know the maximum number fo merge fields allowed in a merge
> template for Word 2003?

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Schardenzar - 06 Jun 2006 19:54 GMT

Thanks! It is a text file and I believe the limit was 255 fields in Word
2000 and prior. We create a text file of fields - just thought the limit was
a hard one (like 256, 512, 1024 etc). The tables we access are SQL 2000/2005
but we write the data to a delimited text file, then do the merge.

> It will probably be dictated by the datasource - about 63 if it's a Word
> document, 255 if it's an Excel Spreadsheet or Table in Access. Possibly no
> limit with a text file as the data source.
>
> > Does anyone know the maximum number fo merge fields allowed in a merge
> > template for Word 2003?

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Peter Jamieson - 07 Jun 2006 12:18 GMT

With luck you won't encounter any problems, but FWIW, there have been
reports of new limits imposed in Word 2002, but it has always been difficult
to pin down what they are.

One issue is the connection method used - with text files in Word 2000, Word
would either use its internal text converter or ODBC, partly depending on
what is installed on the user's system. In Word 2002, Word might well use an
OLEDB method which may have a 255 limit.

Another issue may be the size and "complexity" of the data. When Word
connects to text data these days, it /may/ try to detect the text encoding.
I think it probably uses standard WIN32 routines to do that, and they use
various heuristics which (by the nature of heuristics) do not always get it
right. You may find an encoding dialog popping up in some cases. There's an
article about that at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290981/

Peter Jamieson

> Thanks! It is a text file and I believe the limit was 255 fields in Word
> 2000 and prior. We create a text file of fields - just thought the limit
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>> > Does anyone know the maximum number fo merge fields allowed in a merge
>> > template for Word 2003?

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