Merge dBase IV into Word 2002

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Anthony - 27 Nov 2003 01:58 GMT

Does anyone know a way I can get the data source for a
Word document to be a dBase IV for Excel file? E-mail me
at Anthonyrhine@sbcglobal.net

Reply to this Message

Cindy M -WordMVP- - 27 Nov 2003 12:13 GMT

Hi Anthony,

> Does anyone know a way I can get the data source for a
> Word document to be a dBase IV for Excel file?

There is no such thing as "dBase IV for Excel". Is this a
.dbf or an .xls file? What have you already tried, and with
what result?

Cindy Meister

Signature

INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

:-)

Reply to this Message

Anthony - 27 Nov 2003 17:45 GMT

Cindy,

It has an Excel icon and the properties say it is an
excel filoe, but the extension is dbf. If I save it as
an .xls file I can use it for a merge, but then my
invoicing software doesn't write to it.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Anthony,
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
>.

Reply to this Message

Cindy Winegarden - 28 Nov 2003 02:00 GMT

>>> Does anyone know a way I can get the data source for a
>>> Word document to be a dBase IV for Excel file?
> It has an Excel icon and the properties say it is an
> excel filoe, but the extension is dbf. If I save it as
> an .xls file I can use it for a merge, but then my
> invoicing software doesn't write to it.

Hi Anthony,

I think what you've got is a "regular" dBase DBF file but someone has
associated the file with Excel as far as what program will open it when you
double click on it.

Signature

Cindy Winegarden MCSD, Microsoft Visual FoxPro MVP
cindy.winegarden@mvps.org www.cindywinegarden.com

Reply to this Message

Anthony - 28 Nov 2003 03:18 GMT

Cindy,

The file is a dbf file but appears with an Excel ico and
under properties is listed as an Excel file. If I save
it as an xls file, then my invoicing software can't find
it to update it.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Anthony,
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
>.

Reply to this Message

Cindy M -WordMVP- - 28 Nov 2003 16:20 GMT

Hi Anthony,

> The file is a dbf file but appears with an Excel ico and
> under properties is listed as an Excel file. If I save
> it as an xls file, then my invoicing software can't find
> it to update it.

I understand.

OK, when you go into "Open Data Source", do you see *.dbf
in the list of file types anywhere? (You should see two
entries, one for "dBase" and one for "Foxpro". Try with
both of them and with any luck, one of them will work.

If they don't, go to Tools/Options/General and activate
"Confirm conversions on open". Now try again. This time,
you should get a list of connection methods. Do you see OLE
DB? How about ODBC? If you see both, try selecting ODBC and
see if that makes any difference.

Cindy Meister

Signature

:-)

Reply to this Message

- 28 Nov 2003 22:29 GMT

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your help. I now do get the choice of OLE or
ODBC but it still says it cannot open data source.

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Anthony,
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>
>.

Reply to this Message

Cindy M -WordMVP- - 01 Dec 2003 13:30 GMT

> I now do get the choice of OLE or
> ODBC but it still says it cannot open data source.

And you tried for both Foxpro and dBase? And with any other
entries in "File type" that end in *.dbf?

DBF is a standardized file format that lots of database
programs write to, but there are various "dialects" and
it's possible that your invoicing software is not
generating a dialect that Word can understand.

Try this: go into Excel and Data/Import External Data/Get
data. Follow the steps Excel suggests. Are you able to
import the data into Excel, or does it balk, as well?

Cindy Meister

Signature

:-)

Reply to this Message