[mamgirl]

When I try and merge with Excel and I browse to find my data, it comes up
with two spreadsheets in the list and one has a $ at the end of the file name.

It appears the first file in the list does not contain all my data, but the
one with the $ does.

Why does one have a $ sign, what does this mean?

Also, sometimes my letters/labels only merges half of my data, why is this?

Any thoughts/help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Peter Jamieson]

I can't give you the complete picture because I do not know all the
details, but...

By default, when you connect to Excel in Word 2003, Word uses the Jet
OLE DB provider to do it. The provider considers the workbook to be a
"database" that contains a number of "tables". Each worksheet is
considered to be a table, but other things either created by Excel or by
users may also be considered to be tables - for example, if you define a
named range, it should appear in the list of tables. If you create a
List (Data-List), it should appear in the list of tables separately
from the sheet that contains the list. If you specify the print area,
that will appear in the list of tables. I forget exactly what it is that
Excel does that leaves you with

sheetname
and
sheetname$

Also, the table names that OLE DB sees depend on whether the sheet is
currently open or not. For example, a list may be named sheetname$_ when
the sheet is closed, but sheetname$_FilterDatabase when it is open.

Anyway,

sheetname$ is the one that represents the complete sheet "sheetname" and
is the one you should pick. The only clue I have come across as to why
it has a "$" sign is this quote from the following Micrsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316934


NOTE: The dollar sign following the worksheet name is an indication that
the table exists. If you are creating a new table, as discussed in the
Create New Workbooks and Tables section of this article, do not use the
dollar sign.


You may wonder how you could possibly make use of a table name that
/does not/ exist in an Excel workbook, but it's because OLE DB also
allows you to create worksheets using SQL, in which case you specify the
sheetname you want tocreate without a "$" sign. Or something like that.

Also, sometimes my letters/labels only merges half of my data, why is
this?

A few things you can check...
- that you have the correct number of { NEXT } fields in your mail
merge main document - look for Next record or press Alt-F9 and look
for { NEXT }. In a simple letter merge you would typically have no {
NEXT } fields. In a typical label merge you would have one at the
beginning of each label except the first on the sheet.
- are you definitely selecting all the records, or a specified range
(from 1 to 100)
- do all the records appear in the Edit recipients dialog box? If not,
look for a blank and/or hidden row in your data source

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

mamgirl wrote:
When I try and merge with Excel and I browse to find my data, it comes up
with two spreadsheets in the list and one has a $ at the end of the file name.

It appears the first file in the list does not contain all my data, but the
one with the $ does.

Why does one have a $ sign, what does this mean?

Also, sometimes my letters/labels only merges half of my data, why is this?

Any thoughts/help would be appreciated. Thanks.