Filemaker Data Merge into Word 2004 Educational

[Michael]

I used to use Filemaker 5 with Word 2001. I am switching to Mac OS X
and Filemaker 5 does not work there. So I bought Filemaker 8. However,
then Word 2001 could not use Filemaker 8 data. So I bought Word 2004
Educational Version, with the hope that it would be able to merge data
from Filemaker 8.

Word Education Version does not seem to be able to merge.
Will the Standard or Pro version of Office 2004 solve my problem?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Michael -

The direct answer to your question is "No", it doesn't matter which version
of Office/Word. The problem is that Filemaker changed horses in mid-stream &
left MS out of the loop on its new file format... As yet unresolved. You
might check the FAQs on the FM site for updated information on the issue.

One option is to output the merge data from FM in a compatible format & use
the output file for the merge. All Word needs is a delimited text file.

 

[Michael]

I'm very sorry to hear that.
Is there any program that I can use to import Filemaker 8 data, even
within Filemaker itself?

 

[Michael]

I just saved the Filemaker 8 file as an Excel document. I then opened
Word and merged data from the Excel. The data was there, but mixed up,
in the wrong fields, etc.

 

[CyberTaz]

If the XL file has the data in the correct columns the problem is probably
that Word isn't recognizing the field names. Or is it the XL file that
displays the data in the wrong columns?

I don't currently have FM Pro available, but I'll check a couple of things
when I get home this evening.

 

[google]

If the XL file has the data in the correct columns the problem is probably
that Word isn't recognizing the field names. Or is it the XL file that
displays the data in the wrong columns?

Another approach is to use the FileMaker ODBC driver, and use Excel /
Query to import your data from FMP:

http://www.filemaker/odbc

This appproach let's you import live FMP data, as opposed to opening
FMP to export a snapshot. It also lets you work with FMP 7 or later
(Excel can read FMP 5 or 6 natively). You can then do a Word data
merge with the resulting spreadsheet.

Also, I invite everyone with data merging needs to take a second to
request that MS add ODBC as an option to the Word data merge function
(so that importing to Excel is not a required step):

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/default.aspx?pid=feedback&lang=en&app=Word

Jonathan Monroe
Actual Technologies - ODBC for OS X
http://www.actualtechnologies.com