Mail Merge with Chinese Characters

[Ausmerica]

I'm doing a Mail Merge using an Excel Spreadsheet as the Data source. The
spreadsheet contains English and Chinese Names and addresses.

When Merged, the English displays correctly, the Chinese displays as '?????'

The Chinese displays correctly in the Excel file.

This problem is exhibited on a Win2000 system but works correctly on another
machine under XP using the same Template / Data set.

Is this a known issue or do i have a configuration problem on the Win2000
system?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Which version of /Word/ are you using? Are you using the English language
versions of Windows and Office/Word in both cases? Are you specifying a
particular method to connect tot he data source (e.g. DD, OLEDB, ODBC? - if
you are not aware of doing so, don't worry, just tell us the version of
Word). Also, not sure if this is relevant, but if you are using Word
2002/2003, have you enabled Chinese language features in Office on both
machines?

Peter Jamieson

 

[Ausmerica]

Word version is Word 2000 (9.0.2720)

Not aware of data source connect method.

Note: Excel Displays the Chinese correctly in the Data source (Excel 2000),
only after the Merge into Word it becomes a string of ?'s

 

[Ausmerica]

More information:

If I cut and paste (Chinese characters) from Excel to Word the result is the
same. Chines okay in Excel, garbage in Word. It appears that language support
is installed for Excel 200 but not for Word 2000 .... is this possible?

JP

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hi,

"Don't know" is the simple answer. I'm having a look but there's no
guarantee I'll find the answer even when I've set up some tests here.

What surprised me about your answer is that by default, Word 2000 would use
DDE to connect to Excel. Typically, DDE does not transfer Unicode data and
the only other way to get Chinese characters across would be if the relevant
pre-Unicode Chinese character set was being used on your Win2k system but
not your WinXP system. That's possible, but I'm not sure how you can check.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Ausmerica]

Peter, More information that might be relevant:

Using the same Template / Data source files on another machine running XP /
Office 2003 all is okay. The resulting document from the merge can then be
opened on the Win2000 machine and displays Chinese okay.

The problem seems to lie in the Merge process on the Win2K machine.
JP

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I just want to be sure I am not on a wild goose chase

Windows XP, Word 2003 mailmerge works OK (this is what I would expect if you
are using the default connection method in Word 2003, i.e. OLEDB
Windows XP, Word 2000 mailmerge works OK (I did not expect this as I thought
Word 2000 would always fail). I would like to be sure that you did not mean
Windows XP, Word 2003
Windows 2000, Word 2000 mailmerge inserts ????? (Which I would expect)

Peter Jamieson

 

[Ausmerica]

Windows XP, Word 2003 mailmerge works OK (this is what I would expect if you
are using the default connection method in Word 2003, i.e. OLEDB --> Correct

Windows XP, Word 2000 mailmerge works OK (I did not expect this as I thought
Word 2000 would always fail). I would like to be sure that you did not mean
Windows XP, Word 2003 - ---> Don't have this combination. But Merged
document created under XP/Word2003 opens correctly on Win2K/Word2K machine

Windows 2000, Word 2000 mailmerge inserts ????? (Which I would expect)-->
Correct

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Windows XP, Word 2003 - ---> Don't have this combination. But Merged

document created under XP/Word2003 opens correctly on Win2K/Word2K machine

OK, my guess is that if you actually try to merge this document, you will
see the ?????, in other words, you just can't get the Chinese characters via
mailmerge from Excel in Word 2000. If you need to be able to do it, I think
you will have to cut/paste the Excel sheet into Word then use the Word
document as the data source. Make sure you use a format that will copy the
Unicode characters (the "Paste Cells" option should do it) and make sure
that you use a font that can display Unicode characters such as MS Arial
Unicode - I suspect that if you were having trouble with cut-and-pasting
these characters before, it is probably because of the font issue.

Peter Jamieson