Merge data using SQL 2000 & Access 2000

[Michael Renaldo]

I have various Word documents I want to merge to a SQL
2000 database, but when I create a query using the MS
Query utility through mail merge and add several fields to
a Word document, the NVARCHAR or text fields do not merge
to the document however, numeric fields do. The merged
page count is correct (based on the query) and each page
has a unique numeric field (key field) on it, but the
string fields are not displayed. I created an Access 2000
database and linked the SQL database to it, then created a
query in Access, then linked it to the same Word document
and the data displays perfectly.

Any thoughts?

SQL Server 2000 with patches
Office 2000 SP3

Thanks!

Michael Renaldo

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Yes, this is a known problem - I don't know for sure what causes the problem
but I suspect that when Word is connecting to data via ODBC it does not
issue the correct commands to configure the ODBC driver to deal with Unicode
data.

So your only options are
a. to do something along the lines you have done already
b. use CONVERT/CAST functions in an SQL SELECT to convert from NVARCHAR
etc., thus losing any non-ANSI characters (the SELECT might be in a SQL
Server View or specified in a Word OpenDataSource method call).