Required to rename file to .DAT to merge properly

[Mykel]

I'm using Office XP. When I attempt to merge a CSV file, I'm required
to rename the file to .DAT for it to merge correctly. Apparently it
will read the header row as all one column if I leave the extension at
TXT. I'm guessing this is because it uses ODBC to merge when the file
is .DAT.

I'd like to skip the annoyance of renaming all the merge files once
they are created. Any idea how I could go about fixing this dilemma?

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Mykel,

By default, Word 2002 will want to use OLE DB. And since Word 2000, Word
mail merge won't recognize the Text ODBC driver, unless you're updating
from an earlier version where this was enabled.

Hard to say exactly what's happening in your case; OLE DB will recognize
the DAT extension, so I'd expect Word 2002 to merge the same, no matter
which file extention the data source file has...

Try activating "Confirm conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General,
then link up to the data source. You should get a list of available
connection methods, and you can work your way through them to find which
ones are working, and which not. Based on that, perhaps we can find a
workable solution for you.

BTW, may we assume a comma is the field delimiter, a carriage return is
the record delimiter, and all the text data is in "quotes"?

I'm using Office XP. When I attempt to merge a CSV file, I'm required
to rename the file to .DAT for it to merge correctly. Apparently it
will read the header row as all one column if I leave the extension at
TXT. I'm guessing this is because it uses ODBC to merge when the file
is .DAT.

I'd like to skip the annoyance of renaming all the merge files once
they are created. Any idea how I could go about fixing this dilemma?

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

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