Maximum number of rows?

[Peter Soules]

I am running Word XP 2003. In my external application,
data is sent from an Informix database in a delimited
format.

When I run the program, the process starts out fine.
Word opens my template, and starts creating the data
table from which it creates the form letters.

Here is my problem: I am trying to create around 1,200
letters. Each time, the table creation stops at record
number 992. The problem is not data specific. I can
grab completely different data, and Word stops at exactly
the same row.

My external application continues to try to send the
data, but Word stops. No letters are created.

My work around is to create smaller batches, but that is
inconvenient in my situation.

Question: Is there a limit to the number of rows that
can be imported into Word for a mail merge? I have
hunted for settings that could impact on it, but have not
found anything.

I have recently talked with another person who is
experiencing the same problem, but her process stops at a
smaller number of rows. That made me wonder if this had
anything to do with the memory on an individual pc.

Does anyone have any ideas??

Thanks!

Peter Soules

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Peter,

Question: Is there a limit to the number of rows that
can be imported into Word for a mail merge?

Not officially, no. There can be a problem with the merge
EXECUTION, where not all rows are actually merged; and
indeed, it is usually machine (memory) specific. 992 sounds
a bit low for this, though...

I'm not exactly clear on exactly what you're doing,
however, and would like to clarify a few points

<<I am running Word XP 2003. In my external application,
data is sent from an Informix database in a delimited
format.

When I run the program, the process starts out fine.
Word opens my template, and starts creating the data
table from which it creates the form letters.

Here is my problem: I am trying to create around 1,200
letters. Each time, the table creation stops at record
number 992.>>

1. Are we discussing Word 2002 (XP) or 2003? (There is no
such version as "Word XP 2003")

2. Can you be more specific about what's going on, here?
The existence of a data source and the number of records in
contains should be totally independent of the mail merge
process. There is no internal behavior along these lines:
"Word opens my template and starts creating the data
table".

3. So, if "table creation" - meaning the data source -
stops, then this must be something external to Word's mail
merge.

4. Are you actually attempting to execute the mail merge?
If yes, to a new document or to the printer? And if the
latter, do you see something different when merging to a
new document, instead?

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

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[Peter Soules]

Thanks for your response!

Some clarification:

I am running Word 2003 on an XP pc. I have been able to
run this process without problems on earlier versions of
Word (2002)

The process that I am running is a link between a
database and Word. The database program is set to open
up Word, select a template, and send over the data.

Word opens, and the data source begins to be created.
This is never completed. The data source creation stops
each time at record 992. It is not data dependent. I
have tried it with other data, and the same thing happens.

As the data source is not completed, the mail merge does
not begin automatically, as it should.

I have talked with another person who is attempting the
same thing, and her data source always stops around 500
rows.

If I try to send a smaller batch, it all works fine! The
only problem is with the larger batches.

As far as I can tell, the database program is attempting
to send all of the data. Word seems to reach a limit.

As for memory, I have 1 GB of RAM. The other person
(getting 500 rows) has 256 MB.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Bob S]

On Tue, 11 May 2004 10:03:33 -0700, "Peter Soules"

....trimmed...

I am running Word 2003 on an XP pc.

Word opens, and the data source begins to be created.
This is never completed. The data source creation stops
each time at record 992. It is not data dependent. I
have tried it with other data, and the same thing happens.

I have talked with another person who is attempting the
same thing, and her data source always stops around 500
rows.

As for memory, I have 1 GB of RAM. The other person
(getting 500 rows) has 256 MB.

....fascinating...

It is widely believed (though I don't think that Microsoft has ever
admitted it) that mail merge starts over scanning records from the
beginning of the source for each record that it merges. (E.g. it gets
record 1, forgets where it was, gets record 1 and then 2, forgets
where it was, gets record 1 then 2 then 3, etc.) This is probably why
Word mail merge gets slower as it goes along.

This is an "N-squared" algorithm; the time it takes (and the number of
records scanned) is proportional to the square of the number of
records actually merged.

Now imagine that Word 2003 (or the interaction with the database) has
a memory leak that loses a certain amount of memory every time it
looks at a record. The amount of memory leaked would be proportional
to the square of the number of records merged. For example someone
might lose 256MB merging 500 records, and 1GB merging 1000 records.
Sound familiar? (If Word is leaking pageable memory, we would need to
know the page file size on the two machines. If Word is leaking
non-pageable memory, it must be losing about 2KB per record. This is
more like arterial bleeding than a small leak.)

The cures available would be:

Get more memory

Break the job into several smaller jobs

Get Microsoft to fix the leak

Try one of the other methods of connecting to the database (maybe it
is the connection method that is leaking)

Bob S