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




"Pete" wrote in message
...
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