Maximum number of usable fields with mail merge manager

J

jim088

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a very large Excel data source (360 fields). They will not all merge into the Word document/report I have created. What is the maximum number of field for mail merge manager? How can I get all of my fields to merge into my document?
 
M

macropod

Hi Jim,

AFAIK you can't merge more than 255 fields per record.

If your data consist of what are effectively multiple fields of the same kind (eg a series of outstanding invoices and their
amounts) per recipient, you could reorganise them so that a Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge could be used instead (the terminolgy
depends on the Word version).

To see how to use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for multiple records per recipient, check out my Word 97-2007
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showtopic=731107
or
http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue Mailmerge.zip
Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included with it.
 
J

jim088

macropod,
The variety of academic, cognitive, processing, behavioral and emotional assessments I administer (student, parent, and teacher) do not have duplicate information..... just lots of specific data
--
Thanks for your input,
Jim
Hi Jim,

AFAIK you can't merge more than 255 fields per record.

If your data consist of what are effectively multiple fields of the same kind (eg a series of outstanding invoices and their
amounts) per recipient, you could reorganise them so that a Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge could be used instead (the terminolgy
depends on the Word version).

To see how to use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for multiple records per recipient, check out my Word 97-2007
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
<http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showtopic=731107>
or
<http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue Mailmerge.zip>
Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included with it.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a very large Excel data source (360 fields). They will not all merge into the Word document/report I have created. What is
the maximum number of field for mail merge manager? How can I get all of my fields to merge into my document?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

macropod,
The variety of academic, cognitive, processing, behavioral and emotional
assessments I administer (student, parent, and teacher) do not have duplicate
information..... just lots of specific data
--
Thanks for your input,
Jim
Hi Jim,

AFAIK you can't merge more than 255 fields per record.

If your data consist of what are effectively multiple fields of the same kind
(eg a series of outstanding invoices and their
amounts) per recipient, you could reorganise them so that a
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge could be used instead (the terminolgy
depends on the Word version).

To see how to use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for multiple
records per recipient, check out my Word 97-2007
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
<http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showtopic=731107>
or
<http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue Mailmerge.zip>
Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included
with it.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


wrote in message news:[email protected]...
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a very large Excel data source (360 fields). They will not all merge
into the Word document/report I have created. What is
the maximum number of field for mail merge manager? How can I get all of my
fields to merge into my document?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Sorry macropod, 255 does not seem to be a limit to the number of merge
fields. I have successfully used 300. Jim088, what does "will not all merge"
mean? Do you gen an error? What does the resultant document look like?

In the application I mentioned above my word file had only one header
record, and 1 data record. I did not try a merge with several data records,
as the objective was to produce a single large report from a complex Excel
workbook.
 
J

jim088

Hi Bob,

Thank you for your response. When I say "will not merge", the merging process stops at a certain point. When I open the Mail Merge Manager (MMM) window, all of my fields names (first row of Excel) do not show up. The resulting document merges fine up to the last field name in the MMM window. After that, the fields in my Word document are left with the field name (i.e., <<CASIQ>>, <<ATTpercentile>>, etc...) and nothing merged from my data source. The number of individual records will continue to grow, perhaps to as many as 120. Therefor, the size of my Excel data would be 360x120 (very large).

It seems to me there should be a way to merge unlimited fields from an Excel data source into a Word "form letter" document. Perhaps there is another option within Excel and Word I am not seeing.

At this point I am ready to purchased FileMaker Pro 10 and take the time to learn it.

Thanks,
Jim088
 
J

jim088

macropod,

You are correct, I just did a count of where my fields stop merging. It is at #255. Field 256 - 406 are the same as lost. I think the easiest way to solve my problem is to purchase, and learn, FileMaker Pro 10. Thanks for your knowledge.....
 
M

macropod

Hi Bob,

According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688 "The maximum number of data fields in an Excel worksheet is 256."
The OP is using an Excel worksheet (2007/8) as the datasource.

It seems that getting beyond 255/256 fields will require exporting the data to a tab-delimited text file or a comma-delimited text
file and using that as the data source. Even then, "There is a limitation of 255 fields in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box".

--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


Bob Greenblatt said:
macropod,
The variety of academic, cognitive, processing, behavioral and emotional
assessments I administer (student, parent, and teacher) do not have duplicate
information..... just lots of specific data
--
Thanks for your input,
Jim
Hi Jim,

AFAIK you can't merge more than 255 fields per record.

If your data consist of what are effectively multiple fields of the same kind
(eg a series of outstanding invoices and their
amounts) per recipient, you could reorganise them so that a
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge could be used instead (the terminolgy
depends on the Word version).

To see how to use Word's Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge facility for multiple
records per recipient, check out my Word 97-2007
Catalogue/Directory Mailmerge Tutorial at:
<http://www.wopr.com/index.php?showtopic=731107>
or
<http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/Catalogue Mailmerge.zip>
Do read the tutorial before trying to use the mailmerge document included
with it.


--
Cheers
macropod
[Microsoft MVP - Word]


wrote in message Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have a very large Excel data source (360 fields). They will not all merge
into the Word document/report I have created. What is
the maximum number of field for mail merge manager? How can I get all of my
fields to merge into my document?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Sorry macropod, 255 does not seem to be a limit to the number of merge
fields. I have successfully used 300. Jim088, what does "will not all merge"
mean? Do you gen an error? What does the resultant document look like?

In the application I mentioned above my word file had only one header
record, and 1 data record. I did not try a merge with several data records,
as the objective was to produce a single large report from a complex Excel
workbook.
Click to expand...
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

Hi Bob,

According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688 "The maximum number of
data fields in an Excel worksheet is 256."
The OP is using an Excel worksheet (2007/8) as the datasource.

It seems that getting beyond 255/256 fields will require exporting the data to
a tab-delimited text file or a comma-delimited text
file and using that as the data source. Even then, "There is a limitation of
255 fields in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box".
Click to expand...
OK, maybe there is a 256 cell limit using Excel as the data source. However,
using a tab delimited data file as a data source does not present this
limit.
 
B

Bob Greenblatt

Hi Bob,

According to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294688 "The maximum number of
data fields in an Excel worksheet is 256."
The OP is using an Excel worksheet (2007/8) as the datasource.

It seems that getting beyond 255/256 fields will require exporting the data to
a tab-delimited text file or a comma-delimited text
file and using that as the data source. Even then, "There is a limitation of
255 fields in the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box".
Click to expand...
Oh, and if he is using Excel 2007/8 as the data source, with 16,384 columns,
this can be easily exported as a tab delimited file.
 

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