some fields do not print/appear

[Brad]

Win98SE. Office 2000. I have a mail merge in Word using Excel as the db,
connected via ODBC. (I am doing it that way because the Excel doc has
multiple worksheets.) The db is a PayPal transaction list of orders. I
decided to insert order numbers that are consecutive into an existing
column -- one that had been used for the time zone. So I replaced "PST"
with numbers. I started with 101 and then dragged a series fill. Each
time I import new orders, I drag the series down for the new rows.

Problem: After inserting that order number field into the merge doc, I
cannot get the actual data to appear. I tried changing the format of the
cells to numbers and to text, but that did not help. I also tried creating
a new column and putting the consecutive order numbers there, and again the
field will not appear in the doc -- only the code when I show the codes.

I even tried creating a new merge doc with just this one order number field
in it, and again the actual data will not appear.

Any idea as to why the data does not show up? Thanks.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Brad,

Hmmm. A little background, first: ODBC driver looks at the first eight rows
of data in order to determine the data type (numeric or text). If an entry
doesn't match the type, then it comes across "blank". This sounds like what
you're seeing, the problem is going to be figuring out WHY it's doing this.

What kind of information was in "time zone", that was in there, before? Was
it numeric or text?

If you select the column, then use Data/Text to Column to format this
explicitly as text (unlike what Format/Cell does, which is purely cosmetic as
far as ODBC is concerned) do you see any different result?

Win98SE. Office 2000. I have a mail merge in Word using Excel as the db,
connected via ODBC. (I am doing it that way because the Excel doc has
multiple worksheets.) The db is a PayPal transaction list of orders. I
decided to insert order numbers that are consecutive into an existing
column -- one that had been used for the time zone. So I replaced "PST"
with numbers. I started with 101 and then dragged a series fill. Each
time I import new orders, I drag the series down for the new rows.

Problem: After inserting that order number field into the merge doc, I
cannot get the actual data to appear. I tried changing the format of the
cells to numbers and to text, but that did not help. I also tried creating
a new column and putting the consecutive order numbers there, and again the
field will not appear in the doc -- only the code when I show the codes.

I even tried creating a new merge doc with just this one order number field
in it, and again the actual data will not appear.

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

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[Brad]

Some of what you wrote I understand, some I don't -- I mean I don't
understand some of the underlying stuff. But, the problem is solved. I
had no idea (and have no idea now as to how I would have found this
otherwise) that ODBC looks at the first 8 records!

I will say that even after I did the text to Column, the "numbers" still
can be treated as numbers -- e.g., add/delete decimal point and zeros to
the right. And, more important, I can drag a continuation of the series of
numbers, as needed.

The only reason I am using ODBC is that it is how I read in the KB to work
with Excel docs that have multiple worksheets. I've heard that in Office
2003 that this is no longer necessary. Not a $300 problem, but nice to
know if I do upgrade.

Thank you very much. This was driving me crazy.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Brad,

But, the problem is solved. I
had no idea (and have no idea now as to how I would have found this
otherwise) that ODBC looks at the first 8 records!

Good! Thanks for confirming the text-to-column approach worked for
this

Cindy Meister