I'm trying to take a text document with specified character ranges and input
the fields in a word document. For example 'Jeff Gordon', character 1-4
First Name, character 6-11 Last name. Has anyone ever tried this before? It
almost seems like it should be programmed in VBA or something.

Hi,

This has been done within a commercial document management product,
OctoTools. Its mail merge capability includes "mapping" of data or field by
both a drag and drop GUI and specifying row/character positions. Mail merge
is just one aspect of its more comprehesive funtionality including PDF
conversion, report enhancement, forms design, and output management
(bursting, web distribution, email, and print output enhancement). If
interested, please take a look at www.octotools.com. The software is
desinged to run automatically and is aimed at medium to high volume
throughputs. I hope this is of some use. Thanks,

Larry T.

larry"at"jbmsystems"dot"com 978 535-7676 (Boston, MA US)