Truncated merge fields

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Pete - 27 Feb 2006 18:57 GMT

I have an excel sheet with some cell contents of about 500 characters

When I merge this in to word the fields are truncated at 255 characters

I understand that this is a throw back to previous limits, but why does it
happen?

I have looked at cell format etc etc
I am not using tables etc just merge fields in a simple word document

I have read previous threads in this group and using Doug Robbins idea have
managed to make the merge work by saving the excel sheet as as a csv file and
merging that. This may work but its inconvienent

Anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks

Pete

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 27 Feb 2006 20:18 GMT

I believe that the advice concerning the use of a .csv file was more to do
with wanting to be able to use more than 255 fields which is the limit for
the number of columns or fields in Excel and Access respectively.

The way around the 255 character per field limit is the change the method of
connection to the data source to DDE. To do that, select Options from the
Tools menu in Word and go to the General tab and check the box against
"Confirm conversions at open" Then when you attach the data source to the
mail merge main document, select DDE as the method by which the connection
should be made.

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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 sheet with some cell contents of about 500 characters
>
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>
> Pete

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Pete - 27 Feb 2006 21:40 GMT

Doug

Thank you - but I can not get this to work properly at all. It seems to
muddle the merge fields and merges the wrong data

I am using some fields more than once - is this a proplem
Word can merge longer than 255 using the default connection so why does it
sometimes not do so?

csv works ok - hopefully word 12 will sort it out !

Thanks
pete

> I believe that the advice concerning the use of a .csv file was more to do
> with wanting to be able to use more than 255 fields which is the limit for
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
> >
> > Pete

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 28 Feb 2006 05:05 GMT

Using the fields more than once should not cause a problem and the method of
connection should not muddle the fields. Perhaps you need to check the mail
merge main document.

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

> Doug
>
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>> >
>> > Pete

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 28 Feb 2006 05:11 GMT

In the thread "Remove character limit from merge fields" BHodge reports that
using a DDE connection "totally worked".

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

> Doug
>
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
>> >
>> > Pete

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Peter Jamieson - 03 Mar 2006 22:44 GMT

> I understand that this is a throw back to previous limits, but why does it
> happen?

Unfortunately it is not the case that this is a throwback to previous
limits - the limits on text length are determined by the Jet ODBC
driver/OLEDB provider which is what Word uses to get Excel data when it
isn't using DDE. Even those limits can be confusing because the Jet provider
can be in one of two (or three, I forget) modes. In other words,
- none of the methods are especially reliable
- the older method is a better bet than the newer method
- it sounds as if the csv method is the best of the lot.

Peter Jamieson

>I have an excel sheet with some cell contents of about 500 characters
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Pete

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