Word 2004 for Mac mail merge with Excel source - extra pages

[Sean Chandler]

I do a weekly mail merge with an Excel source and a Word main document.

The mail merge works as expected, with the exception that the merged file
contains as many as 20 extra pages of blank merged fields

The Excel source has only blank cells after the last row of info to be
merged, and the Word main document cells are set up with «Next Record
If»«NAME», where NAME is the first column in the Excel source file

Is there an end of record character that I can insert into the Excel sheet
so that the mail merge stops at the correct row in my Excel source?

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Sean -

The odds are that the extra "ghost" records are coming through in the merge
because Word thinks there is content and that's because Excel is telling it
that those records exist Contrary to common misconception, Word doesn't
*pull* information from the source. It simply says "gimme what ya got" &
then takes what it is given.

The content that Excel thinks is there isn't necessarily visible to the
naked eye, however - I once had a similar situation because a user thought
that the correct way to delete the content of a cell was to select it and
press the spacebar (true story).

The first thing I'd try is going into the Excel sheet, selecting all cells
beneath the known record rows then using the Edit> Clear> All command
(alternatively, Edit> Delete...> Shift Cells Up) to make sure the cells are
truly empty.

If that doesn't work try selecting the "real" records & pasting to a new
sheet in a new workbook to see if that resolves it.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac



On 6/24/08 9:55 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed), "Sean Chandler" <Sean