Mailmerge from Excel in Memo format

[Dave Reardon]

I am having a bit of a frustrating time doing what Office 2000 used to do so
well. Creating a mail merge document from an Excel spreadsheet using an
export from a memo field which contains the address of the recipient with
carriage returns. What happens is I select mailing labels, go through the
step by step wizard. For reasons best known to Microsoft, they now expect
addresses to be line by line. I point out the field that contains the
(several line) address and the window shows it correctly. When I then go on
to the next step and print preview it, it tries to put all of the text on a
single line with question marks in boxes where the carriage returns should
be. Am I missing something fundamental, or can Word no longer merge a simple
multi line field?

Thanks in anticipation

Dave

 

[Peter Jamieson]

So far I haven't been able to replicate this, but...

Which version of Word/excel are you now using?

Are you using an spreadsheet created in Excel 2000 or your current version?

Did you enter the line breaks using Alt-enter?

are you merging using the default connection method? (i.e. e.g. are you
aware of selecting DDE, ODBC, OLE DB etc.? if you are, which connection
method are yu using?)


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Dave Reardon]

Hi Peter

No, I'm using Excel 2007 and Word 2007. I created the spreadsheet then went
through the step by step wizard to create the merge, so from that perspective
I didn't get bogged down with creating an ODBC or OLEDB type connection.

I didn't enter any line breaks as they already exist in the spreadsheet -
obviously I put them in between recipient name and address fields and between
address and postcode.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hi Dave,

I didn't enter any line breaks as they already exist in the spreadsheet -

Yes, what I was really asking was how you enter the line breaks in the
spreadsheet (I assume Alt-Enter, but AFAICR there is another way to achieve
a multi-line layout in Excel). But I read your original message again and...

<<
from an Excel spreadsheet using an
export from a memo field
does that mean you are exporting from an Access database (or other database)
first?

 

[Dave Reardon]

Hi Peter

Hi Dave,


Yes, what I was really asking was how you enter the line breaks in the
spreadsheet (I assume Alt-Enter, but AFAICR there is another way to achieve
a multi-line layout in Excel). But I read your original message again and...

<<
from an Excel spreadsheet using an
export from a memo field

does that mean you are exporting from an Access database (or other database)
first?

Yes that is right. I know, I could do them from Access (2007) but it is for
our secretaries and they are all a bit nervous about Access. Personally it is
my chosen way of working, but we have to give them what they want

Dave

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Yes that is right. I know, I could do them from Access (2007) but it is

for
our secretaries and they are all a bit nervous about Access. Personally it
is
my chosen way of working, but we have to give them what they want

Understood.

I thought the problem might arise because when you enter a line break in an
Access memo field (using ctrl-enter), Access inserts a CRLF sequence,
wherease when you do it in Excel (using alt-enter), Excel just inserts a LF.
However, typically when you copy/paste from Access to Excel, or import data
from Access, you get the right result - In fact I get more or less the right
result whatever I do here so am not sure this is the origin of the problem.


If you are able to replicate the problem starting with a completely new
Access DB, Excel sheet and Word document,

1. it /might/ help to know
a. exactly which format Access database you are now using (e.g. a Word 2000
format .mdb? A Word 2007 .accdb? Something else?
b. exactly how you are transferring the data to Excel.

2. If you can send me a sample db/workbook/word document that show the
problem, that might be helpful (despam my e-mail address if you can find it)