Mac Mail Merge Documents on Word 2003

[Felix Moletteri]

I am having a problem with Word 2003 when attempting to open a mail
merge document that was created on a Mac. The document itself can be
opened but the data file is not handled properly. I end up the the
following error message, "We could not mergethe main documentwith the
data source because the data records were empty or no data records
matched your query options."

The data file is a plain text csv file created on the Mac. I know
that the Mac text files only have a CTRL-A as an new record delimiter.
However, in Word 2000 I was able to process these very same mail
merge documents with any external conversion. I can convert the data
file using excel or some other tool but I am looking for the seamless
approach that I had before. Does any one have any suggestions.

Thanks,
Felix

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Felix,

If Word 2000 could do it, then chances are it was using ODBC or Word's
internal text converter. Word 2003 will use OLE DB by default, which
could explain the difference in behavior.

Try activating "Confirm conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General,
then select the data file. You should get an option to choose the data
connection method; try Word's internal text file converter.

I am having a problem with Word 2003 when attempting to open a mail
merge document that was created on a Mac. The document itself can be
opened but the data file is not handled properly. I end up the the
following error message, "We could not mergethe main documentwith the
data source because the data records were empty or no data records
matched your query options."

The data file is a plain text csv file created on the Mac. I know
that the Mac text files only have a CTRL-A as an new record delimiter.
However, in Word 2000 I was able to process these very same mail
merge documents with any external conversion. I can convert the data
file using excel or some other tool but I am looking for the seamless
approach that I had before.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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