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MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / August 2006mail merge - text wont display correctly
Hello, I am using office 2003, Word/Excel. I am having trouble getting my text to display correctly in my merge doc. The text displays as 0 but only values from 2 or 3 different columns. The other text values (other columns) display correctly. I am very confused. I have played with the formatting in excel even though I understanding that word ignores that formatting (?) Previously I found that the “confirm conversion at open” solved my problem up until it stopped working. That is to say, word will no longer stay connected (?) to my data source even though it does open my spreadsheet, it tells me it cannot find it & gives me the option of going to get it. If I choose to go get it from there I will continue to get the same results (cannot find the data source). Instead, upon opening my word doc., I have to choose “no” do not connect to my data source and start from the beginning each time. I hope that was clear enough .. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions! Hi Rascl, > I am using office 2003, Word/Excel. > I am having trouble getting my text to display correctly in my merge [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > beginning each time. > I hope that was clear enough .. I'm not sure I follow... "The text displays as 0 but only values from 2 or 3 different columns" can be interpreted in a couple of ways. You mean some columns pass a "0" instead of the content in the cell? Or do you mean values from one column are appearing in the field for a different column? If you mean the first: do these columns have mixed text and numeric entries? And the first few entries are numeric? If that's the case, select one of the columns. Go to the DATA menu and choose "Text to columns". The most important step is where you select the option that sets the data type. By default it's "General"; you want to specifically say it's "Text". This will allow mixed text and numbers, no matter how you connect. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Cindy M. Wrote: > Hi Rascl, > [quoted text clipped - 48 lines] > or > reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Ah! Cindy that’s awesome .. Except ): one of my columns contain formulas to pull in data. It turns my formula into text so that i doesn’t work – anyway around that one?? I appreciate your help!!! I have posted this before (other forum) bu you are the only one to reply. Thank yo Hi Rascl, > > > I am using office 2003, Word/Excel. > > > I am having trouble getting my text to display correctly in my merge [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > I appreciate your help!!! I have posted this before (other forum) but > you are the only one to reply. That's why we have some forums that are topic-specific :-) Mail merge is a very specialized area... You have two choices 1. Copy the problem column VALUES to another column. 2. Use the TEXT function ("around" the current formula) to explicitly format the result as text. In my experience, Word respects that. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) I’m afraid I don’t get what you’re saying. I don’t know near as much as I would like to and I’m sure not a fraction of what you do .. this is kicking my butt!! ): Apparently my formulas do not recognize the values from the columns using the text function either. A little more info: I have 39 columns of information (1800 rows so far) either entered or pulled in by formulas that could be any combination of text and numbers. I use as many formulas as I possibly can to pull in info from other spreadsheets to save time. -I do copy/paste values over all rows completed so I only have a minimal number of rows with formulas. I pretty much depend on mail merge to bring everything together. Reports, credits, packing slips, shipping docs, pull logs, labels. ugh! I am the only one (so far) upgraded to Office 2003 .. it looks like I may have to go back to 2000 if I cant figure this out. Our IT dept. has determined it is not a network issue (they did all updates & suggestions Microsoft offered). I mention that because my spreadsheet was on the network, they moved some stuff around & the DDE thing quit working (coincidence?) so I saved it to my desktop – worked fine for awhile, then quit again. I have gotten at least on engine failure message when trying to connect to my data source .. “This operation cannot be completed because of dialog or database engine failures” .. blablabla. Too much info? Sorry. Don’t want to waste your time, perhaps you could suggest mail merge reading material? – I obviously need to study but am definitely willing to try any suggestions – if you could use little words |: Thanks again! That's why we have some forums that are topic-specific :-) Mail merge is a very specialized area... You have two choices 1. Copy the problem column VALUES to another column. 2. Use the TEXT function ("around" the current formula) to explicitly format the result as text. In my experience, Word respects that. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Hi Rascl, > This operation cannot be > completed because of dialog or database engine failures This often indicates that the MDAC (Microsoft Data Access) on the machine needs to be updated. You IT folks should understand what that means :-) > Apparently my formulas do not recognize the values from the columns > using the text function either. > > 2. Use the TEXT function ("around" the current formula) to explicitly > format the result as text. In my experience, Word respects that. In an earlier message you said you had one column where you couldn't use "Text to columns" because the column contains a formula. Could you please copy that formula from Excel's formula bar and paste it into your reply? Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Hi Cindy, Thank you for your continued support! I have copied the formula below however yesterday our IT dept. (different person) determined that not only was something wrong with my network connection but apparently some?thing wrong with my pc. They gave me a new pc & plugged me in to a different network line. The problem(s) hasn’t re-occurred as yet. My values are again displaying correctly without doing the confirm conversion at open however that’s where the original problem started and why I went to the confirm conversion in the first place… I’m not entirely convinced that the problem wont re-occur but I’m hoping(: At any rate I am still interested in the text to column matter if you wouldn’t mind replying even though its no longer as urgent a need for me (so far). Here is my formula: =IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims .xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))," ",(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))) Thanks for all your help!!(: rascl Hi Rascl, > They gave me a new pc & plugged me in to a > different network line. The problem(s) hasnt re-occurred as yet. My > values are again displaying correctly without doing the confirm > conversion at open however thats where the original problem started > and why I went to the confirm conversion in the first place Im not > entirely convinced that the problem wont re-occur but Im hoping(: OK, DDE is back in business - enjoy it while it lasts :-) > At any rate I am still interested in the text to column matte Let's see what we can work out... > Here is my formula: > =IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty > Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims .xls]Warranty > Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))," ",(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product > Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims > .xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))) That's a "mouthful" :-) This is what I'd try. Note that I'm giving it a 0.00 numbering style (at the end, before the closing parenthesis), but you can substitute whatever you like. The important thing is that there's something: =TEXT(IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims .xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))," ",(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))), "0.00") Note: If I'm reading this correctly, the problem may be with the "True" section. You're setting this to a space? Then a number format may not be accepted, or may give you a result you don't want. In that case, try something more along these lines: =IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims .xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE))," ",Text((VLOOKUP(A1770,'C:\Product Support\Warranty\2006 Warranty Reports\Claims\[2006 Warranty Claims xls]Warranty Claims'!$A:$N,14,FALSE)), "0.00")) Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Thank you! Thank you! I will try that asap!! -currently very behind due to all the problems I was having. Note: If I'm reading this correctly, the problem may be with the "True" section. You're setting this to a space? The only reason I set "true" to a space is so that I will get n display if there is no value available, instead of 0 or n/a showing u in my form letter. There is probably a better way (?) and maybe not s harry of a formula but I don’t know about one yet... I'm pretty muc self taught .. rather, I started out swiping formulas and figuring the out so I could use them|: I have minimal classes taken now but none s far that focus on writing formulas .. Thank you a million times !! I look forward to trying your suggestio asap! |
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