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#1
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International Characters in a merge field
I am having some issues with international characters in a merge field. My
database shows the characters correctly but when I hook my document up to the database word changes the symbols. Are their any settings I may have wrong? or does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? I am using word 2000. |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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International Characters in a merge field
Typically, neither of the methods Word uses to get mailmerge data in
Word 2000 (DDE and ODBC) return characters that are not either in the ANSI (or Windows) character sets, or your system's base character set if isn't ANSI (AFAIK this is what Microsoft sometimes refers to as the OEM character set) In Word 2002 and later you should get Unicode data if you are using an OLE DB provider that handles Unicode correctly - Access/Jet and SQL Server are at least reasonably OK on this front. But if your database only has an ODBC driver, Unicode still may not get through. I've never been able to work out whether that is a limitation of the specific ODBC drivers I have or the way that Word uses them. I think that in order to see these characters you might have to get your source data in a separate step that uses a method that does work, into a format (probably Word .doc format or .rtf format) that /will/ allow Unicode data to reach Word. e.g. it may be possible if you write VBA to get data via OLE DB, stuff it into a Word table and use that as a data source. But I wouldn't be completely sure even about that without trying it. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: I am having some issues with international characters in a merge field. My database shows the characters correctly but when I hook my document up to the database word changes the symbols. Are their any settings I may have wrong? or does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? I am using word 2000. |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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International Characters in a merge field
These are basic characters in the windows character set. I do know that
these can import correctly in the formats that they currently are in because we do have one workstation (same version of office, and windows) that does import these correctly. That leads me to think that there is a setting on these other workstations that is incorrect. Are there any settings in word that involve importing or special characters that I could check to make sure these are set correctly? "Peter Jamieson" wrote: Typically, neither of the methods Word uses to get mailmerge data in Word 2000 (DDE and ODBC) return characters that are not either in the ANSI (or Windows) character sets, or your system's base character set if isn't ANSI (AFAIK this is what Microsoft sometimes refers to as the OEM character set) In Word 2002 and later you should get Unicode data if you are using an OLE DB provider that handles Unicode correctly - Access/Jet and SQL Server are at least reasonably OK on this front. But if your database only has an ODBC driver, Unicode still may not get through. I've never been able to work out whether that is a limitation of the specific ODBC drivers I have or the way that Word uses them. I think that in order to see these characters you might have to get your source data in a separate step that uses a method that does work, into a format (probably Word .doc format or .rtf format) that /will/ allow Unicode data to reach Word. e.g. it may be possible if you write VBA to get data via OLE DB, stuff it into a Word table and use that as a data source. But I wouldn't be completely sure even about that without trying it. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: I am having some issues with international characters in a merge field. My database shows the characters correctly but when I hook my document up to the database word changes the symbols. Are their any settings I may have wrong? or does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? I am using word 2000. |
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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International Characters in a merge field
1. What is the data source? If it is a plain text file, then Word will
typically use ODBC to open the file if ODBC is set up and the text driver is present. Otherwise it will use its internal converter. Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you which of the two will work. You may find that switching on Word Tools-Options-General-Confirm conversion at open helps you to see what is going on. 2. It's probably worth verifying that the workstation that works is set up with the same system locale as the ones that do not. You'll probably find that in control Panel-Regional Settings. There may be one or two other settings but I don't remember anything that would affect Word 2000. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: These are basic characters in the windows character set. I do know that these can import correctly in the formats that they currently are in because we do have one workstation (same version of office, and windows) that does import these correctly. That leads me to think that there is a setting on these other workstations that is incorrect. Are there any settings in word that involve importing or special characters that I could check to make sure these are set correctly? "Peter Jamieson" wrote: Typically, neither of the methods Word uses to get mailmerge data in Word 2000 (DDE and ODBC) return characters that are not either in the ANSI (or Windows) character sets, or your system's base character set if isn't ANSI (AFAIK this is what Microsoft sometimes refers to as the OEM character set) In Word 2002 and later you should get Unicode data if you are using an OLE DB provider that handles Unicode correctly - Access/Jet and SQL Server are at least reasonably OK on this front. But if your database only has an ODBC driver, Unicode still may not get through. I've never been able to work out whether that is a limitation of the specific ODBC drivers I have or the way that Word uses them. I think that in order to see these characters you might have to get your source data in a separate step that uses a method that does work, into a format (probably Word .doc format or .rtf format) that /will/ allow Unicode data to reach Word. e.g. it may be possible if you write VBA to get data via OLE DB, stuff it into a Word table and use that as a data source. But I wouldn't be completely sure even about that without trying it. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: I am having some issues with international characters in a merge field. My database shows the characters correctly but when I hook my document up to the database word changes the symbols. Are their any settings I may have wrong? or does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? I am using word 2000. |
#5
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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International Characters in a merge field
We have tracked down the issue here. I believe when this document was first
created we didn't specify that it was being hooked up to a FoxPro database. When I created a new document that specified a FoxPro datatbase the characters are importing correctly. Thanks for your help. "Peter Jamieson" wrote: 1. What is the data source? If it is a plain text file, then Word will typically use ODBC to open the file if ODBC is set up and the text driver is present. Otherwise it will use its internal converter. Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you which of the two will work. You may find that switching on Word Tools-Options-General-Confirm conversion at open helps you to see what is going on. 2. It's probably worth verifying that the workstation that works is set up with the same system locale as the ones that do not. You'll probably find that in control Panel-Regional Settings. There may be one or two other settings but I don't remember anything that would affect Word 2000. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: These are basic characters in the windows character set. I do know that these can import correctly in the formats that they currently are in because we do have one workstation (same version of office, and windows) that does import these correctly. That leads me to think that there is a setting on these other workstations that is incorrect. Are there any settings in word that involve importing or special characters that I could check to make sure these are set correctly? "Peter Jamieson" wrote: Typically, neither of the methods Word uses to get mailmerge data in Word 2000 (DDE and ODBC) return characters that are not either in the ANSI (or Windows) character sets, or your system's base character set if isn't ANSI (AFAIK this is what Microsoft sometimes refers to as the OEM character set) In Word 2002 and later you should get Unicode data if you are using an OLE DB provider that handles Unicode correctly - Access/Jet and SQL Server are at least reasonably OK on this front. But if your database only has an ODBC driver, Unicode still may not get through. I've never been able to work out whether that is a limitation of the specific ODBC drivers I have or the way that Word uses them. I think that in order to see these characters you might have to get your source data in a separate step that uses a method that does work, into a format (probably Word .doc format or .rtf format) that /will/ allow Unicode data to reach Word. e.g. it may be possible if you write VBA to get data via OLE DB, stuff it into a Word table and use that as a data source. But I wouldn't be completely sure even about that without trying it. Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk Jessica B. wrote: I am having some issues with international characters in a merge field. My database shows the characters correctly but when I hook my document up to the database word changes the symbols. Are their any settings I may have wrong? or does anyone have any suggestions to fix this? I am using word 2000. |
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