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MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / December 2007Merge Excel to Word field extension
I've had a problem with mail merging data from Excel into Word. It'll take over some of the data but can leave part of the information off. I have just come to the conclusion that this is because it will only take 255 characters from a particular Excel cell to Word. Can anyone help in either extending the amount of characters or some other way to fix it?? Thanks in advance Emily See http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm You probably need to try the "DDE" method mentioned near the top.  SignaturePeter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk > I've had a problem with mail merging data from Excel into Word. It'll > take [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Thanks in advance > Emily thanks Peter, I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging sheet 1 & 2 seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing. I've figured out that the cell information stops at 255 characters when converted int Word. I somehow need to extend this amount if possible, unfortunately theahrsh reality looks like I can't do that and will need to split the cells. Only problems there is there is so much data in the column that this is a problem with, it doesn't seem viable. Any ideas?? > See http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance > > Emily 1. Is it stopping at 255 using DDE? 2. (I'm assuming that you have the space on the label to fit those 255 characters :-) ) 3. Are you in a position to decide what mail merge data source you start with? If you only have a small number of columns in Excel (less than around 64) you should be able to copy/paste your Excel data into a new Word document and use that as the data source. > I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging sheet 1 & > 2 > seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing. Why does doing two merges make a difference? SignaturePeter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk > thanks Peter, > I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging sheet 1 & [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] >> > Thanks in advance >> > Emily I'll have to look into the DDE bit, the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet, then merging it over to Word, each line in a separate document, and then each document is being downloaded onto our website. Which with the amt of rows in each spreadsheet, it would be too difficult to copy and paste all of them. I've also been told that the boss doesn't want to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even harder. Thnaks very much > 1. Is it stopping at 255 using DDE? > [quoted text clipped - 42 lines] > >> > Thanks in advance > >> > Emily > I'll have to look into the DDE bit, > the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet, then merging [quoted text clipped - 52 lines] > > >> > Thanks in advance > > >> > Emily So are you a. typing data into a 1 row Excel sheet, then merging that into a Word document, then doing another row, or b. typing multiple rows of data into an Excel sheet, then doing as many merges as you have rows in the sheet, or c. typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet, then doing one merge, then splitting the output, or d. what? If you are typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet and you want to produce 1 document per record, your best bet is probably either to a. do the merge, then split the output (see http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm ) or b. use a VBA macro to do one merge per record. (I suspect in this case (a) wpould give you everything you need but I can provide macro code for (b), or you can search for it in this group (e.g. look for jamieson activerecord) If you have only one -row spreadsheets as data sources, it surprises me that you are only getting 255 characters through. I'd need to check again what happens in that case. If you have multiple rows but all the first 8 have fewer than 255 characters in the column in question, you would see the rest of the rows truncate to 255 characters - all you /should/ need to do in that case is introduce a dummy row someehere in the first 8 rows with more than 255 characters. However, even if you cna't get the Excel data source to work, it really should be quite easy to copy the entire data source into Word by selecting the sheet, Edit|Copy, open a new Word document, Edit|Past. You don't have to do a line by line copy. (Of course this is no use if you are creting one-row spreadsheets). > I've also been told that the boss doesn't want > to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even harder. Sorry, can't deal with that sort of stuff from here... SignaturePeter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk > I'll have to look into the DDE bit, > the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet, then [quoted text clipped - 61 lines] >> >> > Thanks in advance >> >> > Emily We are typing data into the excel spreadsheet, each item has 1 row to fit all the information. Once we have the info we need in Excel, we go through our files, open the word document, which has a pop up saying that "Opening this document will run the following SQL command" "Select * from 'STOCK$' " "Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want to continue?" Clcik yes, then select the Excel sheet we want it to link to. The document then opens with the template, and we create the mail merge. Tools, Mail Merge, edit recipient list, then tick the box next to the item that it relates to. Then when it's loaded the information we can see that 1 area only brings over 255 characters from the cell. In excel, sheet 1, so far we've used 321 rows for our items, and using up to column 'BF'. The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we do have a lot of data in there. I hope this explains what we are trying to do???!!!! I'll have a look at those links you've provided now and see how i go.. will be in touch > So are you > a. typing data into a 1 row Excel sheet, then merging that into a Word [quoted text clipped - 97 lines] > >> >> > Thanks in advance > >> >> > Emily Hi i've had a look at the individual merge letters page. It doesn't look like that would help us much in wot we are doing, but maybe my brain just can't comprehend it!? Also I went to try the DDE part, so Iwent through it as I was reading the notes,when it got to this bit: "after you have selected the file in the "Select Data Source" dialog box and clicked "Open", you should see an additional dialog box titled "Confirm Data Source" g. select "MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)" and click OK." I clicked Open, but no ther dialog box popped up to be able to alter it. We are using Word & Excel 200, but that shouldn't make a difference.. Will discuss again later. Have a Merry Xmas, wish u & family all the best > We are typing data into the excel spreadsheet, each item has 1 row to fit > all the information. [quoted text clipped - 119 lines] > > >> >> > Thanks in advance > > >> >> > Emily That depends on which version you are actually using - unfortunately from this > Word & Excel 200 I cannot tell. But clicking Open suggests it may be Word 2000. If it's Word 2000, when you get to the Open Data Source dialog box, you need to check the "Select method" box. Then the additional question about DDE should display after you have selected the data source and clicked Open. >> Then when it's loaded the information we can see that 1 area only brings >> over 255 characters from the cell. >> In excel, sheet 1, so far we've used 321 rows for our items, and using up >> to >> column 'BF'. The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we >> do OF, if you are going up to BF, then you are near the limit for a copy/paste into Word, but it is probably still worth trying. If you do the copy/paste and you do not end up with a table in Word, there are more columns than Word allows in a table and this approach probably will not work. > The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we do Does the Z column have short texts (shorter than 255) in all the first 8 rows? Do any of the other columns have large amounts of text? SignaturePeter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk > Hi i've had a look at the individual merge letters page. It doesn't look > like [quoted text clipped - 177 lines] >> > >> >> > Thanks in advance >> > >> >> > Emily oops, sorry its Microsoft 2003, I'll have to check into the first 8 columns, don't have it at home with me. But I am pretty sure that column Z is the only one with a large amount of info. It's the description of the stock, everthing else is maybe 50 characters, if that. cheers > That depends on which version you are actually using - unfortunately from > this [quoted text clipped - 206 lines] > >> > >> >> > Thanks in advance > >> > >> >> > Emily For the DDE connection, if it's Word 2003, then I am mystified that you are not getting the additional dialog box here... > > Also I went to try the DDE part, so Iwent through it as I was reading > > the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Data > > Source" The key thing is that Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" needs to be checked before you go through the connection process. >> Does the Z column have short texts (shorter than 255) in all the first 8 >> rows? If it does, then one thing you can consider doing before merging is to add a single row at the beginning of the sheet that has more than 255 characters in column Z, then exclude it from the merge (or perhaps discard the output if you are printing, that sort of thing). Not nice, but it may be worth trying just to see if it does actually work - it certainly does here, but with a smaller sheet than you are using. SignaturePeter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk > oops, sorry its Microsoft 2003, > [quoted text clipped - 256 lines] >> >> > >> >> > Thanks in advance >> >> > >> >> > Emily See also - You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command" message when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data source - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=825765 Signature<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> Graham Mayor - Word MVP My web site www.gmayor.com Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<> > We are typing data into the excel spreadsheet, each item has 1 row to > fit all the information. [quoted text clipped - 135 lines] >>>>>>> Thanks in advance >>>>>>> Emily
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