MS Word Mail Merge Limitation for Windows 2000

[RS]

we are using MS Word 2000 (9.038 SR-1) and Windows 2000 (5.0192) SP-2.

We want to prepare a Benefit Statements of approximately 15,000
employees in MS Word. We merge with a CSV date file. I have a lot of
fields that are formatted for Dollar amounts, and upside down(mirror)
font to display from and to addresses. This will printed on 8/12 X 14
page. At present, If I merge for 100-2000 pages, it works fine and I
have no problem. But I want to create 15,000 pages in one shot. If I
start merging for 15K recs, my Computer almost freezes to death and
consumes cpu usage 99-100%, run for ever and get struck and I have to
abort the MS Word. IS there any way how I can speed up the mail merge.
Is there any limitations by MS Word that how many records at the most
it can sucessfully merge. My sample mail merged file 100
pages/records is about 2 mb. I am looking for atleast 300 mb in one
shot. I have read a document on the internet that preformatting all
the dollar amounts and populate them directly into the MS Word to
speed up the mail merge.

I also have a question on too few data fields, when I click check for
errors after selecting 3rd option (complete the mail merge without
pausing, Report Errors in a new document). Is there any way I can
avoid this step and directly generate the merged document.



Can you please help me how to speed up the mail merge.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Rs,

Well, let's start with the limitation of 32 MB max for a single Word
document. You mention the merge result will yield a 300 MB file,
minimum. Since Word can't handle this, you'll have to find a different
approach.

As to how many records Word can merge in one process: there is no
official maximum, but each system/configuration will hit a point where
merge will become glacially slow, or even stop. Only trial and error
will tell you what it is. Sometimes, merging directly to the printer
will yield better (or poorer!) results.

In either case, this means you have to break the merge down into "bite
sized" sets of data. If you're automating this process at all (I'm not
clear on whether you're doing that?), then you can do this reasonably
easily.

we are using MS Word 2000 (9.038 SR-1) and Windows 2000 (5.0192) SP-2.

We want to prepare a Benefit Statements of approximately 15,000
employees in MS Word. We merge with a CSV date file. I have a lot of
fields that are formatted for Dollar amounts, and upside down(mirror)
font to display from and to addresses. This will printed on 8/12 X 14
page. At present, If I merge for 100-2000 pages, it works fine and I
have no problem. But I want to create 15,000 pages in one shot. If I
start merging for 15K recs, my Computer almost freezes to death and
consumes cpu usage 99-100%, run for ever and get struck and I have to
abort the MS Word. IS there any way how I can speed up the mail merge.
Is there any limitations by MS Word that how many records at the most
it can sucessfully merge. My sample mail merged file 100
pages/records is about 2 mb. I am looking for atleast 300 mb in one
shot. I have read a document on the internet that preformatting all
the dollar amounts and populate them directly into the MS Word to
speed up the mail merge.

I also have a question on too few data fields, when I click check for
errors after selecting 3rd option (complete the mail merge without
pausing, Report Errors in a new document). Is there any way I can
avoid this step and directly generate the merged document.

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

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[Jeff Bean]

we are using MS Word 2000 (9.038 SR-1) and Windows 2000 (5.0192) SP-2.

We want to prepare a Benefit Statements of approximately 15,000
employees in MS Word. We merge with a CSV date file. I have a lot of
fields that are formatted for Dollar amounts, and upside down(mirror)
font to display from and to addresses. This will printed on 8/12 X 14
page. At present, If I merge for 100-2000 pages, it works fine and I
have no problem. But I want to create 15,000 pages in one shot. If I
start merging for 15K recs, my Computer almost freezes to death and
consumes cpu usage 99-100%, run for ever and get struck and I have to
abort the MS Word. IS there any way how I can speed up the mail merge.
Is there any limitations by MS Word that how many records at the most
it can sucessfully merge. My sample mail merged file 100
pages/records is about 2 mb. I am looking for atleast 300 mb in one
shot. I have read a document on the internet that preformatting all
the dollar amounts and populate them directly into the MS Word to
speed up the mail merge.

I also have a question on too few data fields, when I click check for
errors after selecting 3rd option (complete the mail merge without
pausing, Report Errors in a new document). Is there any way I can
avoid this step and directly generate the merged document.

I have two suggestions (well, actually three):

1. Avoid using text boxes in your main merge document. Position your
text using tab stops instead. I have found that using text boxes causes
the merge to become cumulatively slower as the merge progresses.

2. Don't try Word 2002 or 2003. They are much much slower than earlier
versions when using text/csv data files.

3. Give up on MS Word. Try Crystal Reports or MS Access instead.

Jeff Bean
CWC Software

 

[Jose Rojas]

Theres any example on how Can I break the merge in small sets of data?