[Maureen]

Hello,

I'm creating a letter mail merge in Word 2002 with a datasource from an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet. The issue is that I'm not returning the data set
that I expect.

I have verified that the Excel spreadsheet has the data, however when I do
the merge it returns nothing, in this field only. The other fields seem to
be populating correctly.

Example:
Excel Value
5691D

Word Value
blank

Any ideas?

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

This is from a response by Peter Jamieson to another post that probably
explains and suggests a solution (DDE) to your problem:

Quote

Your best short-term bet, assuming you have Excel on your system, do not
have non-ANSI Unicode characters in your Excel sheet, and have the data in
the first sheet of your workbook (and probably other stuff as well...), is
to try changing the way Word gets your data to the old method (DDE): check
Word Tools|Options|general|"Confirm conversion at Open", go through the
connection process again, and select the DDE method in the additional dialog
box.

Assuming you are using Word 2002/2003, the problem is that the OLEDB
provider that Word uses to get data from Excel tries to determine a data
type for each column. It looks in the first 8 or 25 rows and uses the data
type it finds for the rest of the column. When the types are mixed, it takes
the "majority type". The trouble is that it regards text less than 256
characters long as "text" type and longer ones as "memo" type, and there are
also additional special rules when dealing with texts and memos. You /might/
find, for example, that by adding enough trailing space to shorter texts in
the same column, the whole thing springs to life again.

I'd point you to the web pages I'm writing on this but there are so many ifs
and buts that it's taking me forever to complete.

Peter Jamieson

Unquote

--
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

"Maureen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm creating a letter mail merge in Word 2002 with a datasource from an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet. The issue is that I'm not returning the data set
that I expect.

I have verified that the Excel spreadsheet has the data, however when I do
the merge it returns nothing, in this field only. The other fields seem
to
be populating correctly.

Example:
Excel Value
5691D

Word Value
blank

Any ideas?

[Maureen]

You are wonderful....I updated the Confirm Conversion at Open, and
reconnected using the dde and it worked perfect!!!!

Thank you so much - you have just saved my sanity!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

This is from a response by Peter Jamieson to another post that probably
explains and suggests a solution (DDE) to your problem:

Quote

Your best short-term bet, assuming you have Excel on your system, do not
have non-ANSI Unicode characters in your Excel sheet, and have the data in
the first sheet of your workbook (and probably other stuff as well...), is
to try changing the way Word gets your data to the old method (DDE): check
Word Tools|Options|general|"Confirm conversion at Open", go through the
connection process again, and select the DDE method in the additional dialog
box.

Assuming you are using Word 2002/2003, the problem is that the OLEDB
provider that Word uses to get data from Excel tries to determine a data
type for each column. It looks in the first 8 or 25 rows and uses the data
type it finds for the rest of the column. When the types are mixed, it takes
the "majority type". The trouble is that it regards text less than 256
characters long as "text" type and longer ones as "memo" type, and there are
also additional special rules when dealing with texts and memos. You /might/
find, for example, that by adding enough trailing space to shorter texts in
the same column, the whole thing springs to life again.

I'd point you to the web pages I'm writing on this but there are so many ifs
and buts that it's taking me forever to complete.

Peter Jamieson

Unquote

--
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

"Maureen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm creating a letter mail merge in Word 2002 with a datasource from an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet. The issue is that I'm not returning the data set
that I expect.

I have verified that the Excel spreadsheet has the data, however when I do
the merge it returns nothing, in this field only. The other fields seem
to
be populating correctly.

Example:
Excel Value
5691D

Word Value
blank

Any ideas?

[Maureen]

You are wonderful....I updated the Confirm Conversion at Open, and
reconnected using the dde and it worked perfect!!!!

Thank you so much - you have just saved my sanity!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

This is from a response by Peter Jamieson to another post that probably
explains and suggests a solution (DDE) to your problem:

Quote

Your best short-term bet, assuming you have Excel on your system, do not
have non-ANSI Unicode characters in your Excel sheet, and have the data in
the first sheet of your workbook (and probably other stuff as well...), is
to try changing the way Word gets your data to the old method (DDE): check
Word Tools|Options|general|"Confirm conversion at Open", go through the
connection process again, and select the DDE method in the additional dialog
box.

Assuming you are using Word 2002/2003, the problem is that the OLEDB
provider that Word uses to get data from Excel tries to determine a data
type for each column. It looks in the first 8 or 25 rows and uses the data
type it finds for the rest of the column. When the types are mixed, it takes
the "majority type". The trouble is that it regards text less than 256
characters long as "text" type and longer ones as "memo" type, and there are
also additional special rules when dealing with texts and memos. You /might/
find, for example, that by adding enough trailing space to shorter texts in
the same column, the whole thing springs to life again.

I'd point you to the web pages I'm writing on this but there are so many ifs
and buts that it's taking me forever to complete.

Peter Jamieson

Unquote

--
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

"Maureen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm creating a letter mail merge in Word 2002 with a datasource from an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet. The issue is that I'm not returning the data set
that I expect.

I have verified that the Excel spreadsheet has the data, however when I do
the merge it returns nothing, in this field only. The other fields seem
to
be populating correctly.

Example:
Excel Value
5691D

Word Value
blank

Any ideas?

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Thank Peter.

--
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

"Maureen" wrote in message
...
You are wonderful....I updated the Confirm Conversion at Open, and
reconnected using the dde and it worked perfect!!!!

Thank you so much - you have just saved my sanity!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

This is from a response by Peter Jamieson to another post that probably
explains and suggests a solution (DDE) to your problem:

Quote

Your best short-term bet, assuming you have Excel on your system, do not
have non-ANSI Unicode characters in your Excel sheet, and have the data
in
the first sheet of your workbook (and probably other stuff as well...),
is
to try changing the way Word gets your data to the old method (DDE):
check
Word Tools|Options|general|"Confirm conversion at Open", go through the
connection process again, and select the DDE method in the additional
dialog
box.

Assuming you are using Word 2002/2003, the problem is that the OLEDB
provider that Word uses to get data from Excel tries to determine a data
type for each column. It looks in the first 8 or 25 rows and uses the
data
type it finds for the rest of the column. When the types are mixed, it
takes
the "majority type". The trouble is that it regards text less than 256
characters long as "text" type and longer ones as "memo" type, and there
are
also additional special rules when dealing with texts and memos. You
/might/
find, for example, that by adding enough trailing space to shorter texts
in
the same column, the whole thing springs to life again.

I'd point you to the web pages I'm writing on this but there are so many
ifs
and buts that it's taking me forever to complete.

Peter Jamieson

Unquote

--
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

"Maureen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I'm creating a letter mail merge in Word 2002 with a datasource from an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet. The issue is that I'm not returning the data
set
that I expect.

I have verified that the Excel spreadsheet has the data, however when I
do
the merge it returns nothing, in this field only. The other fields
seem
to
be populating correctly.

Example:
Excel Value
5691D

Word Value
blank

Any ideas?