Merge Data Files, PC to Mac, Possible?

[jenn567]

I use a database file that I created in MS Word 2002 for Windows in a
myriad of files/layouts for merging. I have a new iMac and Office: Mac
Pro Edition 2004. I have unsuccessfully tried to use this (orginal pc)
file on the mac. Is it even possible? Can I export the file from the
pc version to some sort of text version the mac will understand? The
file comes to mac with the extension .mdb.

Even my regular .doc (layout) files are kind of weird on the mac - I
have had to recreate them on the Mac. Any way around this?

Is there anyway to edit the data source on the Mac once you have
created it? Not the information to be merged, I need to add a new
(custom) merge field.

Any info/articles/links you might provide would be greatly
appreciated.
thanks, Jenn

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Your .mdb files are Access/Jet files and Mac doesn't have Access, which is
why you can't read them.

Did you create these .mdb files as "Office Address Lists" (OALs) within the
Word 2002 mailmerge function, or did you create them using Access?

Do you have a lot of them, or just a few?

If you still have your Windows PC software (or maybe you even reinstalled it
in a virtual machine on your Mac?) then it would be possible to do
/something/, e.g.
a. open the .mdb files in Access and export each table
b. open each .mdb in Excel (yes, you can do that on Windows Excel) and
convert each table to a worksheet. If you don't have multi-table databases
then that would probably be quite a good format to use on Mac, as long as
your data doesn't contain non-ANSI Unicode characters.
c. open each .mdb in Excel but copy/paste the data into Word
d. if you don't have either Access or Excel, you can create a "Directory
merge" in Word to generate a new Word document containing the data from an
OAL.

However, if you have to do the conversion on Mac, I'm not at all familiar
with what conversion tools are available.

Peter Jamieson

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jenn -

A few observations and a few suggestions...

First, .mdb is a MS Access database file created by Access, *not* created by
Word. Access doesn't run on Mac OS, so the file, itself, can't be used. Word
*can* read a variety of file formats other than its own for merge purposes,
but I don't believe it can do so if the file format isn't supported on the
OS involved.

However, on the PC you can run your database file in Access, export the data
as a text file or Excel file (among others), then use the exported file as
your Data Source for merging in Word on the Mac.There are Mac apps that can
read a .mdb, but it probably isn't likely you have or want to invest in
them. Once the data is available on the Mac in a readable file format you
can edit/update it to your heart's content.

I'm not clear on what you mean about "layout" being "kind of weird" but - no
offense - if the docs were constructed properly in PC Word there should be
little - if any - difference when opened in Mac Word. The file format on Mac
& PC is identical for Word, PowerPoint & Excel. The most likely cause of
discrepancy is that different fonts were used on the PC than what you have
installed on the Mac. Depending on the structuring of the file there
certainly could be some other issues, but it's impossible to tell what they
may be without significantly more detail accurately describing what you
peceive as "weird".

Also, the Form Document for your merge should be able to be edited in Mac
Word as necessary. I get the impression, however, that what you have is a
Merge File - that is the *result* of a merge previously done - in which case
you can't add any additional fields to it in either version of Word. It's
simply a Word doc that consists of one copy of the Form Doc for each
recipient/record that was in the Data Source at the time the file was
created.