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#1
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Document merge from database with more than 256 columns?
I have an Excel 2003 document consisting of several worksheets. The user
enters data on each of these worksheets. Using references, there is a master worksheet that collects data from the other worksheets. This master worksheet is used to create a merge document using Word. This has worked fine so far, but now I need to increase the number of columns in my master document to more than 256. It follows from here that I'll have to split the master worksheet into two separate sheets. In that case, will I be able to merge them into Word? If not, is there any other solution? Is it possible to have Word merge data from a database that is arranged in rows instead of columns? Thanks |
#2
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Document merge from database with more than 256 columns?
Excel 2007 can accommodate 16,384 columns.
-- 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 "Pablo" wrote in message ... I have an Excel 2003 document consisting of several worksheets. The user enters data on each of these worksheets. Using references, there is a master worksheet that collects data from the other worksheets. This master worksheet is used to create a merge document using Word. This has worked fine so far, but now I need to increase the number of columns in my master document to more than 256. It follows from here that I'll have to split the master worksheet into two separate sheets. In that case, will I be able to merge them into Word? If not, is there any other solution? Is it possible to have Word merge data from a database that is arranged in rows instead of columns? Thanks |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields
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Document merge from database with more than 256 columns?
This has worked fine so far, but now I need to increase the number of
columns in my master document to more than 256. It follows from here that I'll have to split the master worksheet into two separate sheets. In that case, will I be able to merge them into Word? No. Is it possible to have Word merge data from a database that is arranged in rows instead of columns? No. If not, is there any other solution? There may be, but it depends on how simple your data is and you may need to experiment. As further background a. some column limits are imposed by the product (Excel 2003's column limit, for example). Others are imposed by the mechanism Word uses to get data from its data source (either DDE, a text file converter, ODBC or OLE DB). Although I don't think OLE DB itself imposes any limit on column count (I don't know for sure), the Jet OLE DB provider used to get data from Excel does impose a limit - and in fact all the "Desktop Database providers" from Microsoft also impose a maximum of this kind, as far as I know. b. You can move to Excel 2007 and relax the column limit as Doug mentions. But unfortunately there is still a limitation in the providers (now called ACE rather than Jet) so when using Excel as a data source you are stuck with a maximum of 255 columns. With DDE, the maxium is somewhere below 100 I think). c. It is still possible to use a plain delimited text file as a data source and exceed this limit, but you will probably find that you cannot use fields with multiline text reliably, and there are other quirks when using text as a data source (e.g. Word may decide to use the OLE DB provider to read it, in which case you're back to the 255 maximum. Or Word may recognise the encoding of the file incorrectly and you'll end up with chines characters in your document when there should be latin characters- that kind of stuff. So you need to verify that your data works correctly after it's exported to a delimited text format. There can also be problems if your data contains the character you intend to use as a field delimiter (usually tab is best), or contains the text delimiter ("), or if some of the data lines are particularly long. But of course with Excel 2003 even exporting to text format will be difficult because you have to export from two sheets. It's probably worth asking in an Excel group about that because there may be some simple way to do it. However, if I had to do it I would probably write some Excel VBA that looped through every cell in the spreadsheet and output it to a text file, inserting delimiter characters after each cell's data and each row. You can either output to a plain text .txt type file, or use Word Automation to put the data into a Word document (which may have some advantages - I don't know). A possible advantage of using Excel 2007 is that you may be able to export more than 255 columns, or copy/paste the data into Word (use Paste Special and choose the unformatted text option) Other possible approaches: - find a data source with an OLE DB provider or ODBC driver that allows more columns, and store your data there. I don't have any suggestions on that one - keep your data in Excel 2003 but "roll your own" merge application, using Excel automation to get the data from whichever sheet it happens to be in, and stuffing it into your Word document where you need it. -- Peter Jamieson http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk "Pablo" wrote in message ... I have an Excel 2003 document consisting of several worksheets. The user enters data on each of these worksheets. Using references, there is a master worksheet that collects data from the other worksheets. This master worksheet is used to create a merge document using Word. This has worked fine so far, but now I need to increase the number of columns in my master document to more than 256. It follows from here that I'll have to split the master worksheet into two separate sheets. In that case, will I be able to merge them into Word? If not, is there any other solution? Is it possible to have Word merge data from a database that is arranged in rows instead of columns? Thanks |
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