Merge Excel to Word field extension

[EmilyR]

I've had a problem with mail merging data from Excel into Word. It'll take
over some of the data but can leave part of the information off. I have just
come to the conclusion that this is because it will only take 255 characters
from a particular Excel cell to Word.
Can anyone help in either extending the amount of characters or some other
way to fix it??

Thanks in advance
Emily

 

[Peter Jamieson]

See http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm

You probably need to try the "DDE" method mentioned near the top.

 

[EmilyR]

thanks Peter,
I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging sheet 1 & 2
seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing.
I've figured out that the cell information stops at 255 characters when
converted int Word. I somehow need to extend this amount if possible,
unfortunately theahrsh reality looks like I can't do that and will need to
split the cells. Only problems there is there is so much data in the column
that this is a problem with, it doesn't seem viable.

Any ideas??

 

[Peter Jamieson]

1. Is it stopping at 255 using DDE?

2. (I'm assuming that you have the space on the label to fit those 255
characters )

3. Are you in a position to decide what mail merge data source you start
with? If you only have a small number of columns in Excel (less than around
64) you should be able to copy/paste your Excel data into a new Word
document and use that as the data source.

I'm not sure if this sort of thing will work, as we are merging sheet 1 &
2
seperately but with the intention of sorta doin the same thing.

Why does doing two merges make a difference?

 

[EmilyR]

I'll have to look into the DDE bit,
the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet, then merging
it over to Word, each line in a separate document, and then each document is
being downloaded onto our website.
Which with the amt of rows in each spreadsheet, it would be too difficult to
copy and paste all of them. I've also been told that the boss doesn't want
to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even harder.

Thnaks very much

 

[EmilyR]

I'll have to look into the DDE bit,
the work we are doing is typing info into an excel spreadsheet, then merging
it over to Word, each line in a separate document, and then each document is
being downloaded onto our website.
Which with the amt of rows in each spreadsheet, it would be too difficult to
copy and paste all of them. I've also been told that the boss doesn't want
to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even harder.

Thnaks very much

 

[Peter Jamieson]

So are you
a. typing data into a 1 row Excel sheet, then merging that into a Word
document, then doing another row, or
b. typing multiple rows of data into an Excel sheet, then doing as many
merges as you have rows in the sheet, or
c. typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet, then doing one merge, then
splitting the output, or
d. what?

If you are typing multiple rows into an Excel sheet and you want to produce
1 document per record, your best bet is probably either to
a. do the merge, then split the output (see
http://www.gmayor.com/individual_merge_letters.htm ) or
b. use a VBA macro to do one merge per record. (I suspect in this case (a)
wpould give you everything you need but I can provide macro code for (b), or
you can search for it in this group (e.g. look for jamieson activerecord)

If you have only one -row spreadsheets as data sources, it surprises me that
you are only getting 255 characters through. I'd need to check again what
happens in that case. If you have multiple rows but all the first 8 have
fewer than 255 characters in the column in question, you would see the rest
of the rows truncate to 255 characters - all you /should/ need to do in that
case is introduce a dummy row someehere in the first 8 rows with more than
255 characters.

However, even if you cna't get the Excel data source to work, it really
should be quite easy to copy the entire data source into Word by selecting
the sheet, Edit|Copy, open a new Word document, Edit|Past. You don't have to
do a line by line copy. (Of course this is no use if you are creting one-row
spreadsheets).

I've also been told that the boss doesn't want
to seperate the information into 2 columns, which makes it even harder.

Sorry, can't deal with that sort of stuff from here...

 

[EmilyR]

We are typing data into the excel spreadsheet, each item has 1 row to fit
all the information.
Once we have the info we need in Excel, we go through our files, open the
word document, which has a pop up saying that
"Opening this document will run the following SQL command"
"Select * from 'STOCK$' "
"Data from your database will be placed in the document. Do you want to
continue?" Clcik yes, then select the Excel sheet we want it to link to. The
document then opens with the template, and we create the mail merge. Tools,
Mail Merge, edit recipient list, then tick the box next to the item that it
relates to.

Then when it's loaded the information we can see that 1 area only brings
over 255 characters from the cell.
In excel, sheet 1, so far we've used 321 rows for our items, and using up to
column 'BF'. The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we do
have a lot of data in there.

I hope this explains what we are trying to do???!!!!
I'll have a look at those links you've provided now and see how i go.. will
be in touch

 

[EmilyR]

Hi i've had a look at the individual merge letters page. It doesn't look like
that would help us much in wot we are doing, but maybe my brain just can't
comprehend it!?

Also I went to try the DDE part, so Iwent through it as I was reading the
notes,when it got to this bit:
"after you have selected the file in the "Select Data Source" dialog box and
clicked "Open", you should see an additional dialog box titled "Confirm Data
Source"
g. select "MS Excel Worksheets via DDE (*.xls)" and click OK."
I clicked Open, but no ther dialog box popped up to be able to alter it.
We are using Word & Excel 200, but that shouldn't make a difference..

Will discuss again later.

Have a Merry Xmas, wish u & family all the best

 

[Graham Mayor]

See also - You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL
command" message when you open a Word mail merge main document that is
linked to a data source - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=825765

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Peter Jamieson]

That depends on which version you are actually using - unfortunately from
this

Word & Excel 200

I cannot tell. But clicking Open suggests it may be Word 2000. If it's Word
2000, when you get to the Open Data Source dialog box, you need to check the
"Select method" box. Then the additional question about DDE should display
after you have selected the data source and clicked Open.

OF, if you are going up to BF, then you are near the limit for a copy/paste
into Word, but it is probably still worth trying. If you do the copy/paste
and you do not end up with a table in Word, there are more columns than Word
allows in a table and this approach probably will not work.

The column that isn't coming through properly is 'Z', so we do

Does the Z column have short texts (shorter than 255) in all the first 8
rows?

Do any of the other columns have large amounts of text?

 

[EmilyR]

oops, sorry its Microsoft 2003,

I'll have to check into the first 8 columns, don't have it at home with me.
But I am pretty sure that column Z is the only one with a large amount of
info. It's the description of the stock, everthing else is maybe 50
characters, if that.

cheers

 

[Peter Jamieson]

For the DDE connection, if it's Word 2003, then I am mystified that you are
not getting the additional dialog box here...

The key thing is that Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at
open" needs to be checked before you go through the connection process.

If it does, then one thing you can consider doing before merging is to add a
single row at the beginning of the sheet that has more than 255 characters
in column Z, then exclude it from the merge (or perhaps discard the output
if you are printing, that sort of thing). Not nice, but it may be worth
trying just to see if it does actually work - it certainly does here, but
with a smaller sheet than you are using.