Remove character limit in mail merge fields.

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bhodge - 20 Feb 2006 21:04 GMT

There should be no character limit with merge field data. There is no reason
why it should be limited. Ridiculous.

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 23 Feb 2006 10:59 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?YmhvZGdl?=,

> There should be no character limit with merge field data. There is no reason
> why it should be limited.

What limit are you running into? As far as I know, there was no limit until the
first release of Word 2000. And from Service pack 1 on, that limit was
increased to some 32,000+ characters. Hard to imagine text coming into a mail
merge that's over this limit?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
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 :-)

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bhodge - 24 Feb 2006 16:23 GMT

I have an excel 2003 spreadsheet with a column that has a bunch of text. I am
trying to create a bunch of tables in word, since powerpoint can not do mail
merge, from the excel spreadsheet. Whenever the text length in the column
exceeds 255 characters, it stops processing the mail merge and moves to the
next row in the table. I have seen on microsofts site that it is limited to
255 characters. i was looking for a way to get around that. sorry for the
grumpy post, I thought I was writing microsoft a nasty gram and not a post.

> Hi =?Utf-8?B?YmhvZGdl?=,
>
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
> in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 24 Feb 2006 18:50 GMT

From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the item "Confirm conversions at open". Then,
when you attach the data source, select DDE as the method by which the
connection should be made.

Signature

Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

>I have an excel 2003 spreadsheet with a column that has a bunch of text. I
>am
[quoted text clipped - 30 lines]
>> reply
>> in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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bhodge - 27 Feb 2006 22:59 GMT

That totally worked! Thanks so much for the help!

> From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
> and check the box against the item "Confirm conversions at open". Then,
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
> >> reply
> >> in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 25 Feb 2006 16:15 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?YmhvZGdl?=,

> I have an excel 2003 spreadsheet with a column that has a bunch of text. I am
> trying to create a bunch of tables in word, since powerpoint can not do mail
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> 255 characters. i was looking for a way to get around that. sorry for the
> grumpy post, I thought I was writing microsoft a nasty gram and not a post.

<G> Your message appeared as a suggestion, but if there is a way to do it, we do
try to help folks get out of a jam. Suggestions appear in the NTTP lists the
same way posts do, all public and everything.

Doug has given you one suggestion, that's mail-merge specific.

There may be other approaches than mail merge. If you can describe why you use
mail merge rather than, say Copy/Paste, that may give me enough to make some
alternative suggestions. One right off the top of my head: are you familiar with
the Insert Database tool on the Database toolbar? It's a lot like setting up a
mail merge, except it gives you a table and no need to execute to a new
document. Try the connection method Doug suggests. If DDE gives you grief, see
if ODBC is any better.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
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 :-)

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