[Peter Jamieson]

For the DDE connection, if it's Word 2003, then I am mystified that you are
not getting the additional dialog box here...

Also I went to try the DDE part, so Iwent through it as I was reading
the
notes,when it got to this bit:
"after you have selected the file in the "Select Data Source" dialog box
and
clicked "Open", you should see an additional dialog box titled "Confirm
Data
Source"

The key thing is that Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at
open" needs to be checked before you go through the connection process.

Does the Z column have short texts (shorter than 255) in all the first 8
rows?

If it does, then one thing you can consider doing before merging is to add a
single row at the beginning of the sheet that has more than 255 characters
in column Z, then exclude it from the merge (or perhaps discard the output
if you are printing, that sort of thing). Not nice, but it may be worth
trying just to see if it does actually work - it certainly does here, but
with a smaller sheet than you are using.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"EmilyR" wrote in message
...
oops, sorry its Microsoft 2003,

I'll have to check into the first 8 columns, don't have it at home with
me.
But I am pretty sure that column Z is the only one with a large amount of
info. It's the description of the stock, everthing else is maybe 50
characters, if that.

cheers

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

That depends on which version you are actually using - unfortunately from
this

Word & Excel 200

I cannot tell. But clicking Open suggests it may be Word 2000. If it's
Word
2000, when you get to the Open Data Source dialog box, you need to check
the
"Select method" box. Then the additional question about DDE should
display
after you have selected the data source and clicked Open.

Then when it's loaded the information we can see that 1 area only
brings
over 255 characters from the cell.
In excel, sheet 1, so far we've used 321 rows for our items, and using
up
to
column 'BF'. The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so
we
do

OF, if you are going up to BF, then you are near the limit for a
copy/paste
into Word, but it is probably still worth trying. If you do the
copy/paste
and you do not end up with a table in Word, there are more columns than
Word
allows in a table and this approach probably will not work.

The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we do

Does the Z column have short texts (shorter than 255) in all the first 8
rows?

Do any of the other columns have large amounts of text?

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"EmilyR" wrote in message
...
Hi i've had a look at the individual merge letters page. It doesn't
look
like
that would help us much in wot we are doing, but maybe my brain just
can't
comprehend it!?

Also I went to try the DDE part, so Iwent through it as I was reading
the
notes,when it got to this bit:
"after you have selected the file in the "Select Data Source" dialog
box
and
clicked "Open", you should see an additional dialog box titled "Confirm
Data
Source"
g. select "MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)" and click OK."
I clicked Open, but no ther dialog box popped up to be able to alter
it.
We are using Word & Excel 200, but that shouldn't make a difference..

Will discuss again later.

Have a Merry Xmas, wish u & family all the best



"EmilyR" wrote:

We are typing data into the excel spreadsheet, each item has 1 row to
fit
all the information.
Once we have the info we need in Excel, we go through our files, open
the
word document, which has a pop up saying that
"Opening this document will run the following SQL command"
"Select * from 'STOCK$' "
"Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want
to
continue?" Clcik yes, then select the Excel sheet we want it to link
to.
The
document then opens with the template, and we create the mail merge.
Tools,
Mail Merge, edit recipient list, then tick the box next to the item
that
it
relates to.

Then when it's loaded the information we can see that 1 area only
brings
over 255 characters from the cell.
In excel, sheet 1, so far we've used 321 rows for our items, and using
up
to
column 'BF'. The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so
we
do
have a lot of data in there.

I hope this explains what we are trying to do???!!!!
I'll have a look at those links you've provided now and see how i go..
will
be in touch

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

So are you
a. typing data into a 1 row Excel sheet, then merging that into a
Word
document, then doing another row, or
b. typing multiple rows of data into an Excel sheet, then doing as
many
merges as you have rows in the sheet, or
c. typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet, then doing one merge,
then
splitting the output, or
d. what?

If you are typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet and you want to
produce
1 document per record, your best bet is probably either to
a. do the merge, then split the output (see
http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm ) or
b. use a VBA macro to do one merge per record. (I suspect in this
case
(a)
wpould give you everything you need but I can provide macro code for
(b), or
you can search for it in this group (e.g. look for jamieson
activerecord)

If you have only one -row spreadsheets as data sources, it surprises
me
that
you are only getting 255 characters through. I'd need to check again
what
happens in that case. If you have multiple rows but all the first 8
have
fewer than 255 characters in the column in question, you would see
the
rest
of the rows truncate to 255 characters - all you /should/ need to do
in
that
case is introduce a dummy row someehere in the first 8 rows with
more
than
255 characters.

However, even if you cna't get the Excel data source to work, it
really
should be quite easy to copy the entire data source into Word by
selecting
the sheet, Edit|Copy, open a new Word document, Edit|Past. You don't
have to
do a line by line copy. (Of course this is no use if you are creting
one-row
spreadsheets).

I've also been told that the boss doesn't want
to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even
harder.

Sorry, can't deal with that sort of stuff from here...


--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"EmilyR" wrote in message
...
I'll have to look into the DDE bit,
the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet,
then
merging
it over to Word, each line in a separate document, and then each
document
is
being downloaded onto our website.
Which with the amt of rows in each spreadsheet, it would be too
difficult
to
copy and paste all of them. I've also been told that the boss
doesn't
want
to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even
harder.

Thnaks very much

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

1. Is it stopping at 255 using DDE?

2. (I'm assuming that you have the space on the label to fit
those
255
characters :-) )

3. Are you in a position to decide what mail merge data source
you
start
with? If you only have a small number of columns in Excel (less
than
around
64) you should be able to copy/paste your Excel data into a new
Word
document and use that as the data source.

I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging
sheet 1
&
2
seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing.

Why does doing two merges make a difference?
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"EmilyR" wrote in message
...
thanks Peter,
I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging
sheet 1
&
2
seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing.
I've figured out that the cell information stops at 255
characters
when
converted int Word. I somehow need to extend this amount if
possible,
unfortunately theahrsh reality looks like I can't do that and
will
need
to
split the cells. Only problems there is there is so much data
in
the
column
that this is a problem with, it doesn't seem viable.

Any ideas??

"Peter Jamieson" wrote:

See http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm

You probably need to try the "DDE" method mentioned near the
top.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

"EmilyR" wrote in message
...
I've had a problem with mail merging data from Excel into
Word.
It'll
take
over some of the data but can leave part of the information
off. I
have
just
come to the conclusion that this is because it will only
take
255
characters
from a particular Excel cell to Word.
Can anyone help in either extending the amount of characters
or
some
other
way to fix it??

Thanks in advance
Emily