[MichelleD]

I need to merge from a datasource that uses double quotes " as a field
delimiter, using word 2003. It has always worked before, but now, I can't
select the " as a delimiter. It's a pain in the neck - is there anything I
can do?

[Peter Jamieson]

1. This is curious, because as far as I know it is quite difficult to use a
text file with " field delimiters as a data source, so I'm wondering if I
have misunderstood something. But are you talking about a source that looks
something like this?

fieldname1"fieldname2"fieldname3
row1field1"r1f2"r1field3
r2field1"row2field2"r2f3

?

2. Maybe you could let us know if you are actually using something
different. And do you /have/ to use that format, or does it overcome some
other problem you have?

3. Were you opening these data sources in the usual way from Word, or
opening pre-existing Word files that were already connected to the data
source? If you were opening the data sources yourself, were you conscious of
having to choose between "Text files", "OLE DB", or "ODBC"?

4. Word 2003 can open .txt files as data sources using
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB

5. As far as I know, you have never been able to specify a " as a field
delimiter when Word uses (a) (in that case you will probably see a dialog
and will get to choose both field and record delimiters). At least, I don't
see the option on e.g. word 2000 or 95. Using a "header source" does not
appear to make any difference.

6. If you check Word Tools-Options-General and re-open your data source,
you may get to choose the ODBC and OLEDB options. But they will only work if
the data source has 255 columns or less, uses CR/LF as a record delimiter,
and so on. If you choose OLEDB, you will not be able to specify the "
delimiter there either. And if you choose ODBC, Word will only be able to
open the data source if there is a file called SCHEMA.INI in the same folder
as the text file containing a suitable entry for the file. Further, to do
that you have to use settings which you cannot set up for the data source
via the ODBC Administration facility in Control Panel.

So I'm a bit stumped as to how it worked before, and I'd rather discover
more about the data source before trying to explain how to set up SCHEMA.INI
and the other stuff that /may/ make this work. (Could your SCHEMA.INI file
have been deleted or modified?)

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"MichelleD" wrote in message
...
I need to merge from a datasource that uses double quotes " as a field
delimiter, using word 2003. It has always worked before, but now, I can't
select the " as a delimiter. It's a pain in the neck - is there anything
I
can do?