[Christoph Arnold]

I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded and
shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction on
keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem with
Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying to
open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable it
temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support incident
mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work (other people here
may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded and
shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction on
keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem with
Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't have
more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week we saw (on
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be possible to use
more fields (we reported this - and the fact that opening just the file
fails - again, but still waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying
to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable it
temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work (other
people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded and
shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction on
keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Most MS datasources (Excel, Access) have this limit. It should not exist
with a .csv (text) file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week we
saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that opening
just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying
to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work (other
people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded and
shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction on
keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

The file looks like this (with 3 of the 508 fields):

"KUN_Betriebsnummer";"KUN_Branche";"KUN_Bundesland "
"";"";"Niedersachsen"

so nothing special. It's strange that even opening just the file (without
being a mailmerge datasource) doesn't work correctly with word 2003/2007.

Christoph Arnold


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Most MS datasources (Excel, Access) have this limit. It should not exist
with a .csv (text) file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week we
saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that opening
just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying
to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded
and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction
on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source is
attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the file
twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source connected, and once
when it opens the .doc that is created from the .dot. However, when it tries
to open the file attached to the .doc, it is already open exclusively and
Word cannot open it again. This was not the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from the
..dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that usually
means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something like that) to
open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to the
data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum we
are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in future.
Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may have to force
Word to use (a) (again, checking Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion
at open" is the only way to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text converter
tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is "not sure", it
may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know, Word uses a set of
heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file explicitly defines the
character set being used, and I have certainly heard reports that large
numbers of fields or large field contents can trigger display of this dialog
box. All you can really do is see what happens on your system(s) and deal
with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week we
saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that opening
just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying
to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work (other
people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded and
shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction on
keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I thought from your earlier post that if you checked the "Confirm
conversions at open" box, that you could open the file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
The file looks like this (with 3 of the 508 fields):

"KUN_Betriebsnummer";"KUN_Branche";"KUN_Bundesland "
"";"";"Niedersachsen"

so nothing special. It's strange that even opening just the file (without
being a mailmerge datasource) doesn't work correctly with word 2003/2007.

Christoph Arnold


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Most MS datasources (Excel, Access) have this limit. It should not exist
with a .csv (text) file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week
we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that
opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded
and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction
on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

ah ok, I didn't write that clear, the behaviour of this textfile in word
2003 is always: the file is opened in word, but after a second or so the
cursor in word stands still and word doesn't response any more...

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I thought from your earlier post that if you checked the "Confirm
conversions at open" box, that you could open the file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
The file looks like this (with 3 of the 508 fields):

"KUN_Betriebsnummer";"KUN_Branche";"KUN_Bundesland "
"";"";"Niedersachsen"

so nothing special. It's strange that even opening just the file (without
being a mailmerge datasource) doesn't work correctly with word 2003/2007.

Christoph Arnold


"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Most MS datasources (Excel, Access) have this limit. It should not
exist with a .csv (text) file.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week
we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that
opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource
is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still /
no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter). When
opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion dialog), the
file is always displayed but then after a second word hangs/cursor stands
still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source is
attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the file
twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source connected, and
once when it opens the .doc that is created from the .dot. However, when
it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it is already open
exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was not the behaviour in
Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from the
.dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that usually
means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something like that)
to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to the
data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum we
are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in future.
Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may have to force
Word to use (a) (again, checking Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion
at open" is the only way to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text converter
tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is "not sure", it
may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know, Word uses a set of
heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file explicitly defines the
character set being used, and I have certainly heard reports that large
numbers of fields or large field contents can trigger display of this
dialog box. All you can really do is see what happens on your system(s)
and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week we
saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that opening
just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and try
opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is trying
to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded
and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction
on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter). When
opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion dialog), the
file is always displayed but then after a second word hangs/cursor stands
still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source is
attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the file
twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source connected, and
once when it opens the .doc that is created from the .dot. However, when
it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it is already open
exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was not the behaviour in
Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from the
.dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that usually
means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something like that)
to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to the
data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum
we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in future.
Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may have to
force Word to use (a) (again, checking Tools|Options|General|"Confirm
conversion at open" is the only way to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text converter
tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is "not sure",
it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know, Word uses a set
of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file explicitly defines
the character set being used, and I have certainly heard reports that
large numbers of fields or large field contents can trigger display of
this dialog box. All you can really do is see what happens on your
system(s) and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week
we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that
opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded
and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction
on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

Word certainly spends more time opening data sources than it used to. For
one thing, it tries to load up to 10000 records and tries to match them
against any list of records that the user marked as selected or unselected
in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog.

Lately, I have also noticed that Word can sometimes behave strangely if it
has previously failed to open a document (including text files) and has put
it in its list of Disabled Items - it is probably worth looking in Word
Help|"About Microsoft Office Word"|"Disabled items..." and re-enabling your
file if it is listed.

Other than that, I do not know what could be the cause. All I can say is
that others have also reported problems dealing with mail merge data sources
with large numbers of fields. The only other check I would probably attempt
is to redue the number of records (just use 2 or 3) and see what happens
then. As for Word 2007, I do not have the release version, but there is no
reason to expect that it will have any improvements in this area, and one
reason so far to suspect that it might be worse.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter). When
opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion dialog), the
file is always displayed but then after a second word hangs/cursor stands
still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source is
attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the file
twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source connected, and
once when it opens the .doc that is created from the .dot. However, when
it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it is already open
exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was not the behaviour in
Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from the
.dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that usually
means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something like that)
to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to the
data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum
we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in future.
Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may have to
force Word to use (a) (again, checking Tools|Options|General|"Confirm
conversion at open" is the only way to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text converter
tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is "not sure",
it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know, Word uses a set
of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file explicitly defines
the character set being used, and I have certainly heard reports that
large numbers of fields or large field contents can trigger display of
this dialog box. All you can really do is see what happens on your
system(s) and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week
we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that
opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to disable
it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word 2003/2007
doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource is loaded
and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still / no reaction
on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and 2007.
(I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always be
reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always when
opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter). When
opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion dialog),
the file is always displayed but then after a second word hangs/cursor
stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source
is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the
file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source connected,
and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the .dot. However,
when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it is already open
exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was not the behaviour in
Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from
the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that
usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something
like that) to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from
the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to the
data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum
we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in future.
Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may have to
force Word to use (a) (again, checking Tools|Options|General|"Confirm
conversion at open" is the only way to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is
"not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know,
Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file
explicitly defines the character set being used, and I have certainly
heard reports that large numbers of fields or large field contents can
trigger display of this dialog box. All you can really do is see what
happens on your system(s) and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we can't
have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but this week
we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that it should be
possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the fact that
opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource
is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still /
no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No problem
with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened with Word
2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

One other thought: if you try to save the file from Notepad, what encoding
does Notepad think it has - (ANSI? Unicode? etc.)

Peter Jamieson

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and
2007. (I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always be
reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always when
opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter).
When opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion
dialog), the file is always displayed but then after a second word
hangs/cursor stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source
is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the
file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source
connected, and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the
.dot. However, when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it
is already open exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was not
the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from
the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that
usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something
like that) to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from
the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to
the data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields. (a)
allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the maximum
we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do in
future. Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you may
have to force Word to use (a) (again, checking
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" is the only way to
do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is
"not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know,
Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file
explicitly defines the character set being used, and I have certainly
heard reports that large numbers of fields or large field contents can
trigger display of this dialog box. All you can really do is see what
happens on your system(s) and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we
can't have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but
this week we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that
it should be possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the
fact that opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for a
response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it is
trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just
volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a datasource
is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor stands still /
no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No
problem with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened
with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

ANSI

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
One other thought: if you try to save the file from Notepad, what encoding
does Notepad think it has - (ANSI? Unicode? etc.)

Peter Jamieson

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and
2007. (I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always be
reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always when
opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some
way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter).
When opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion
dialog), the file is always displayed but then after a second word
hangs/cursor stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data source
is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the
file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source
connected, and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the
.dot. However, when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc, it
is already open exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This was
not the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from
the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that
usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or something
like that) to open the data source whenever a new .doc is created from
the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the data
source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to connect to
the data source. In the case of text (csv) type files, Word has three
mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields.
(a) allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the
maximum we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do
in future. Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you
may have to force Word to use (a) (again, checking
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" is the only way to
do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is
"not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know,
Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file
explicitly defines the character set being used, and I have certainly
heard reports that large numbers of fields or large field contents can
trigger display of this dialog box. All you can really do is see what
happens on your system(s) and deal with the problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we
can't have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but
this week we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that
it should be possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the
fact that opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for
a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" and
try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks it
is trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just
volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a
datasource is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor
stands still / no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No
problem with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened
with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

If you save it from Notepad in UTF-8 format, does that make any difference
to what happens when you just try to open the file in Word?

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
ANSI

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
One other thought: if you try to save the file from Notepad, what
encoding does Notepad think it has - (ANSI? Unicode? etc.)

Peter Jamieson

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and
2007. (I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always be
reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always when
opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some
way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter).
When opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion
dialog), the file is always displayed but then after a second word
hangs/cursor stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data
source is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the
file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source
connected, and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the
.dot. However, when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc,
it is already open exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This
was not the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source from
the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what that
usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or
something like that) to open the data source whenever a new .doc is
created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the
data source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to
connect to the data source. In the case of text (csv) type files,
Word has three mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields.
(a) allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the
maximum we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to do
in future. Further, when you open a text file as a data source, you
may have to force Word to use (a) (again, checking
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" is the only way to
do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it is
"not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I know,
Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in the file
explicitly defines the character set being used, and I have certainly
heard reports that large numbers of fields or large field contents
can trigger display of this dialog box. All you can really do is see
what happens on your system(s) and deal with the problem if it
occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we
can't have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but
this week we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de) that
it should be possible to use more fields (we reported this - and the
fact that opening just the file fails - again, but still waiting for
a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open"
and try opening the file again. Please note what format Word thinks
it is trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just
volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource for
mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a
datasource is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor
stands still / no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No
problem with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened
with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Christoph Arnold]

I've saved the file now to UTF-8 and Unicode, but same problems when opening
with word.

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
If you save it from Notepad in UTF-8 format, does that make any difference
to what happens when you just try to open the file in Word?

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
ANSI

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
One other thought: if you try to save the file from Notepad, what
encoding does Notepad think it has - (ANSI? Unicode? etc.)

Peter Jamieson

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and
2007. (I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always
be reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always
when opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some
way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something when
opening files that look like datasources (after the text converter).
When opening just the file (with or without the confirm conversion
dialog), the file is always displayed but then after a second word
hangs/cursor stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data
source is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open the
file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source
connected, and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the
.dot. However, when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc,
it is already open exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This
was not the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source
from the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately what
that usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro (or
something like that) to open the data source whenever a new .doc is
created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the
data source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to
connect to the data source. In the case of text (csv) type files,
Word has three mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields.
(a) allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the
maximum we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to
do in future. Further, when you open a text file as a data source,
you may have to force Word to use (a) (again, checking
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" is the only way
to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it
is "not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I
know, Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in
the file explicitly defines the character set being used, and I have
certainly heard reports that large numbers of fields or large field
contents can trigger display of this dialog box. All you can really
do is see what happens on your system(s) and deal with the problem
if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we
can't have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but
this week we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de)
that it should be possible to use more fields (we reported this -
and the fact that opening just the file fails - again, but still
waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open"
and try opening the file again. Please note what format Word
thinks it is trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their support
incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get it to work
(other people here may offer suggestions, but we are just
volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource
for mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a
datasource is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor
stands still / no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No
problem with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when opened
with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold

[Peter Jamieson]

The only remaining suggestion I can make is that if your data file is not
confidential and you are willing to e-mail it, I can have a look here (you
have to take "KillmapS" out of my e-mail address. I'm using English language
Windows XP Pro and Word 2003, but can also start various other Windows/Word
combinations.

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I've saved the file now to UTF-8 and Unicode, but same problems when
opening with word.

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
If you save it from Notepad in UTF-8 format, does that make any
difference to what happens when you just try to open the file in Word?

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
ANSI

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
...
One other thought: if you try to save the file from Notepad, what
encoding does Notepad think it has - (ANSI? Unicode? etc.)

Peter Jamieson

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Can be opened without problems in: Notepad, Wordpad, Word 2000!
The described problems are only when opening the file in Word 2003 and
2007. (I've tested only with these 5 Programs. The problem can always
be reproduced with this textfile, it's not only sometimes, it's always
when opening with Word 2003/2007)

Christoph Arnold

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Can you open the file in Notepad? If not, it may be corrupt in some
way.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the info. Word 2003/2007 seems to do/search something
when opening files that look like datasources (after the text
converter). When opening just the file (with or without the confirm
conversion dialog), the file is always displayed but then after a
second word hangs/cursor stands still/no response.

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
Rading your message again, I think the problem is that the data
source is attached to your .dot file.

The problem is that in Word 2002/2003, Word seems to try to open
the file twice - once when it opens the .dot with the data source
connected, and once when it opens the .doc that is created from the
.dot. However, when it tries to open the file attached to the .doc,
it is already open exclusively and Word cannot open it again. This
was not the behaviour in Word 2000.

You should be able to test that by disconnecting the data source
from the .dot and only connecting it in the .doc. Unfortunately
what that usually means is that you have to write an AutoNew macro
(or something like that) to open the data source whenever a new
.doc is created from the .dot.

The thing about the 255 field limit is that it does depend on the
data source, but it also depends on the way that Word tries to
connect to the data source. In the case of text (csv) type files,
Word has three mechanisms:
a. its internal text converter
b. ODBC
c. OLEDB (the default in Word 2002/2003)

As far as I know, (b) and (c) will limit you to at most 255 fields.
(a) allows more columns, but since there is no specification of the
maximum we are basically at the mercy of what Microsoft decides to
do in future. Further, when you open a text file as a data source,
you may have to force Word to use (a) (again, checking
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open" is the only way
to do this in the User Interface.

One thing that has certainly changed over the years is the text
converter tries to check the character encoding of the file. If it
is "not sure", it may pop up an additional dialog box. As far as I
know, Word uses a set of heuristics to do this (because nothing in
the file explicitly defines the character set being used, and I
have certainly heard reports that large numbers of fields or large
field contents can trigger display of this dialog box. All you can
really do is see what happens on your system(s) and deal with the
problem if it occurs.

Peter Jamieson


"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your quick response!

- I tried with confirm conversion - word opens it as a normal
textfile.
- Disabling the virus checker didn't change the behaviour.
- When we reported it to MS (two weeks ago), we were told that we
can't have more than 256 fields as a datasource for mailmerge, but
this week we saw (on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688/de)
that it should be possible to use more fields (we reported this -
and the fact that opening just the file fails - again, but still
waiting for a response...)

Christoph Arnold

"Peter Jamieson" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
I would try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at open"
and try opening the file again. Please note what format Word
thinks it is trying to open
b. if you have a virus checker enabled and are in a position to
disable it temporarily, try doing that then opening the file.

If necessary report the problem to Microsoft through their
support incident mechanism (on their website) if you cannot get
it to work (other people here may offer suggestions, but we are
just volunteers).

Peter Jamieson
"Christoph Arnold" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to use a textfile (with 508 fields) as a datasource
for mailmerge.

In Word 2000 this file works, but the same file used in Word
2003/2007 doesn't work (the dot, that uses this file as a
datasource is loaded and shown in word, then word hangs / cursor
stands still / no reaction on keyboard/mouse )

The same happens, when I open just the textfile with word! No
problem with Word 2000, Wordpad, Notepad... but hangs when
opened with Word 2003/2007.

Thanks for any help!

Christoph Arnold