This must be caused by the way in which you are connecting to the data
source. From the Tools menu, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. After
doing that, when you connect to the datasource, you will be given a number
of options for the method of connecting to the database. Try the different
methods that are available - probably the DDE one will be the one to use.

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Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
"MergeMan" wrote in message
news
MS WORD MERGE FIELD LIMIT IS TOO SMALL. The maximum MSWord merge field
data
set is 256 characters. This limit makes Word merge useless for many
real-life
merges. If a limit is required please make it very large. Here is a real
life sample to demonstrate: Access/Excel DB holds grades,
comments(400-5000
characters long), email_addr, student names etc. for student exams. I
merge
the Student_Names, grade, comments (full text), etc. to student email
addresses. The comments are longer than 256 characters. The 256 character
limit makes MS Word merge useless - my old ver. of Word Perfect works
fine. I
urge you to lift the limit-or make it very large.