Mail Merge Label Macro w/Russian Text

[Brad]

I am currently creating part identification labels in Word by pulling
information from various Excel spreadsheets via mail merge. I have managed
to automate this with a macro with the exception of one problem:

I have used the vrtSelectedItem command to prompt the user for an excel
sheet to make labels from. This works well until you encounter a spreadsheet
containing Russian text. This results in the data on the label being
displayed as ???????. I have tried setting the language to Russian in the
word document, but with no success. All of the other settings in windows
allow the proper display of Russian text and I'm using a unicode font in the
labels.

If anyone has a solution to this problem, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Which language version of Windows (and, if different, of Word and Excel) are
you using?

Which version of Word/Excel are you using?

If you are using Word/Excel 2000 or earlier, I do not think you will be able
to see Cyrillic characters unless Windows itself is a "Cyrillic" version of
Windows (sorry, I'm not even sure there was such a version when Word 2000
came out)

If you are using Word/Excel 2002 or later, you may be able to see Cyrillic
characters, but only if Word is connecting to the spreadsheet using the
default connection method (OLE DB). And even then, I cannot be sure that it
will work as I imagine it does.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Brad]

I'm using Word and Excel 2003 Professional and I'm not sure of the language
version. Since it was obtained in North America, I'm guessing its English.

The excel file I'm reading from looks something like this:

Quantity наименомание Part #
200 ьолт 55R
100 контргдйкд 46Р

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I think your problem is that ???????????? is not being recognised as a valid
mail merge field name. As it is the data in that field that is probably
more important, I suggest that you replace it with Description as that is
what I believe would be the translation of the Russian word if it had been
spelt correctly.

--
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

I'm using Word and Excel 2003 Professional and I'm not sure of the
language
version. Since it was obtained in North America, I'm guessing its
English.

The excel file I'm reading from looks something like this:

Quantity ???????????? Part #
200 ???? 55R
100 ?????????? 46?
.
.
.
.
If there is no way to do this via mail merge, is there any other way to
automatically generate labels in Microsoft office. (I'm not very
knowledgable in the VB programming language)

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Since it was obtained in North America, I'm guessing its English.

I'd agree.

OK, I copied your data into an Excel 2003 spreadsheet here and created a
simple Word 2003 Mail Merge Main docement using that as a data source, and
it all seems to work. So e.g. I see

{ MERGEFIELD наименомание }

and the field result is as you might hope from the data..

I though it might be a font-related issue, but the font I'm using is the
default Times New Roman.

In other words, as long as everything's on its best behaviour, Word seems to
do the right thing.

So my best guesses are...
a. Word 2003 is not connecting to your spreadsheet using its default method
(OLE DB): older methods would almost certainly return the "???" you are
seeing on an English-based system.
b. your mail merge main document is using a font that, unlike Times New
Roman, does not support the Unicode Cyrillic characters.

Actually my best guess is (a), in which case I do not know what is wrong,
but as a temporary workaround, I would probably try to
a. select the necessary data in Excel (probably not more than 63/64
columns)
b. Edit Copy, then in Word, create a new documnet, and Edit|Paste
c. See if the data looks correct (i.e. Cyrillic characters have not been
replaced by "?" or other characters)
d. See if you can use that as the data source for the merge.

Peter Jamieson

I'm using Word and Excel 2003 Professional and I'm not sure of the
language
version. Since it was obtained in North America, I'm guessing its
English.

The excel file I'm reading from looks something like this:

Quantity наименомание Part #
200 ьолт 55R
100 контргдйкд 46Р
.
.
.
.
If there is no way to do this via mail merge, is there any other way to
automatically generate labels in Microsoft office. (I'm not very
knowledgable in the VB programming language)

 

[Graham Mayor]

I did much the same, only using a different font. Interestingly the Russian
fields came into the document already converted to a font with Cyrillic
characters (Arial). When the field is toggled to show the construction, the
field name is made up of boxes, but the font is the non-cyrillic underlying
font. Change that font to Arial and the cyrillic characters pop back into
view.

It shoukd be possible to force this behaviour by formatting the field with a
font with the extended character set and apply a \*charformat switch to
ensure it sticks?

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Brad]

When I simply run a mail merge in word without recording it as a macro, the
russian text will display as required. It is in the following steps where
the problem seems to arise:

1.) I record the mail merge as a macro (the merge works fine during the
recording).
2.) I modify the macro to prompt the user for an excel file to read from
(all the excel files are identically formatted with identical headings)
3.) I try running the macro and select a different excel file to read from
4.) The mail merge executes

It is here where the problem occurs. All the english text appears in the
proper format no matter what excel sheet I am using. Thus I am guessing it
is the macro that is the cause of the problem. All the settings for language
and font in word appear to be working properly.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Been away, will pick this up in a day or two.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK,
a. Did you try the suggesiton Graham made, i.e.

use Alt-F9 to show the field codes, then format

{ MERGEFIELD "name of your cyrillic column" }

with (say) Arial and change it to

{ MERGEFIELD "name of your cyrillic column" \*Charformat }

?

I had another look at this and cannot currently see what is going wrong (in
other words, recording the macro, then using another workbook/filename works
OK here. However, it is just possible that Word is actually opening the file
using one method (OLE DB) the first time around, but using ODBC the next
time around. I'm trying to think in what circumstances that might happen,
but it would help if you could post the code of your modified macro. Also,
do you see additional dialog boxes when you try to open the sheet specified
by the user?

Peter Jamieson