Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g =if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail merge the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !

I haven't been able to replicate this so far, but...
Which version of Word/Excel?
How are you connecting?
Does it make any difference if you change the way you connect (in Word
2002/2003, check Word Tools|Options|general|Confirm conversions at open then
reconnect)
Does it make any difference if you acutally go through the reconnection
process?
Are you always using ,false) or are you sometimes using ,"false")?
Do all the Excel cells have the same formatting?

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There
are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g
=if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail merge
the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get
FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !

Hi,
Ok word 2002, excel 2002. The cell that is working has the following formulae.
=IF(D2="Eng B1",$E$32,IF(D2="Eng B2",$E$33,IF(D2="Eng B3",$E$34,IF(D2="Eng
G1",$E$35,IF(D2="Eng G2",$E$36,IF(D2="Eng G3",$E$37,FALSE))))))

where E32,33,34,35,36&37 say things like - Thats great, good work, well done
longer strings of text.

The cell that isn't working has this formulae
=IF(H2="Sci B1",$I$32,IF(H2="Sci B2",$I$33,IF(H2="Sci B3",$I$34,IF(H2="Sci
G1",$I$35,IF(H2="Sci G2",$I$36,IF(H2="Sci G3",$I$37,FALSE))))))

The interesting thing is that although both have the same cell format, the
cells that don't work in the mail merge have ######## in the sample box in
Format/Cell, the cells that work show the actual text in the sample box. This
seems kinda significant. But I dunno why - is there a limit on the size of
the string allowed ? The ones not working have more than 100 words. Is there
a max number of words allowed in one field ?

When I did the tools/options/confirm ....... I received the following in the
first incorrect field "Error! MergeField was not found in header record of
data source." the rest of the fields show false again

All formulaes have ,FALSE) not ,"FALSE")



"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

I haven't been able to replicate this so far, but...
Which version of Word/Excel?
How are you connecting?
Does it make any difference if you change the way you connect (in Word
2002/2003, check Word Tools|Options|general|Confirm conversions at open then
reconnect)
Does it make any difference if you acutally go through the reconnection
process?
Are you always using ,false) or are you sometimes using ,"false")?
Do all the Excel cells have the same formatting?

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There
are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g
=if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail merge
the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get
FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !

Actually I think that worked......I've cracked it. Well actually Peter you
did. The Confirm conversions at open seems to have worked. Thanks so much.
you're a star

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

I haven't been able to replicate this so far, but...
Which version of Word/Excel?
How are you connecting?
Does it make any difference if you change the way you connect (in Word
2002/2003, check Word Tools|Options|general|Confirm conversions at open then
reconnect)
Does it make any difference if you acutally go through the reconnection
process?
Are you always using ,false) or are you sometimes using ,"false")?
Do all the Excel cells have the same formatting?

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There
are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g
=if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail merge
the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get
FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !

OK, so absolutely no difference in the structure of the formulas.

I'm no Excel expert, but AFAIK it does behave differently when a text
exceeds a certain length: it has a "text type" up to around 255 chars, and a
"memo" type for longer stuff. What's more, the ODBC driver/OLEDB provider
for Excel can decide that a whole column is "text" if there is a mix of text
and memo types in the first few rows. However,
a. that doesn't explain why you're getting "False" rather than even a
partial text - again, my example is probably too simple at the moment.
b. it doesn't solve your problem except it suggests "don't do it that way"
or "use more than one cell if the text exceeds 255 chars or whatever.

If you don't have more than 63 columns, the simplest approach may be to
copy/paste the whole table into Word and use that as a data source - I
haven't tried, though, and you may still get truncation.

Incidentally, the truncation I get in Word is not straightforward. The text
in Excel doesn't appear to truncate at 255 characters. It appears to
truncate at the 255th non-space character. Go figure!

Best I can do for now.

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi,
Ok word 2002, excel 2002. The cell that is working has the following
formulae.
=IF(D2="Eng B1",$E$32,IF(D2="Eng B2",$E$33,IF(D2="Eng B3",$E$34,IF(D2="Eng
G1",$E$35,IF(D2="Eng G2",$E$36,IF(D2="Eng G3",$E$37,FALSE))))))

where E32,33,34,35,36&37 say things like - Thats great, good work, well
done
longer strings of text.

The cell that isn't working has this formulae
=IF(H2="Sci B1",$I$32,IF(H2="Sci B2",$I$33,IF(H2="Sci B3",$I$34,IF(H2="Sci
G1",$I$35,IF(H2="Sci G2",$I$36,IF(H2="Sci G3",$I$37,FALSE))))))

The interesting thing is that although both have the same cell format, the
cells that don't work in the mail merge have ######## in the sample box in
Format/Cell, the cells that work show the actual text in the sample box.
This
seems kinda significant. But I dunno why - is there a limit on the size of
the string allowed ? The ones not working have more than 100 words. Is
there
a max number of words allowed in one field ?

When I did the tools/options/confirm ....... I received the following in
the
first incorrect field "Error! MergeField was not found in header record of
data source." the rest of the fields show false again

All formulaes have ,FALSE) not ,"FALSE")



"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

I haven't been able to replicate this so far, but...
Which version of Word/Excel?
How are you connecting?
Does it make any difference if you change the way you connect (in Word
2002/2003, check Word Tools|Options|general|Confirm conversions at open
then
reconnect)
Does it make any difference if you acutally go through the reconnection
process?
Are you always using ,false) or are you sometimes using ,"false")?
Do all the Excel cells have the same formatting?

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There
are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into
word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g
=if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is
working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct
text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail
merge
the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get
FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating
by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in
all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !

Oh good! - but test carefully!

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Actually I think that worked......I've cracked it. Well actually Peter you
did. The Confirm conversions at open seems to have worked. Thanks so much.
you're a star

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

I haven't been able to replicate this so far, but...
Which version of Word/Excel?
How are you connecting?
Does it make any difference if you change the way you connect (in Word
2002/2003, check Word Tools|Options|general|Confirm conversions at open
then
reconnect)
Does it make any difference if you acutally go through the reconnection
process?
Are you always using ,false) or are you sometimes using ,"false")?
Do all the Excel cells have the same formatting?

Peter Jamieson

"EF" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm trying to do a mail merge using excel as the data source. There
are
approx 30 columns and 30 rows. The fields that are being mapped into
word
contain text which is in the cell as a result of an IF statement e.g
=if(cell
A = "MATHS1", "you're great at maths",false). The IF statement is
working
perfect in excel i.e the conditions are being applied and the correct
text
appears in the cells (no cell contains a false). When I do the mail
merge
the
first two fields appear correctly but for the rest of the fields I get
FALSE
in all cells. I've refreshed the data, I've made sure that its updating
by
changing small things but its ignoring the updates and shows FALSE in
all
fields. Can anyone help, I'm at my wits end !