Character Limit in Access

[Guest]

I am creating a recipe book for our school. I created a form in Word and
have saved each file as a *.txt file. It has been a real pain importing the
info into Access because each form was not filled out exactly the same. Some
had different characters or returns, etc. Word won't let me export in any
other form than a comma delimited file. When I try to import those files
into Access, I run into many errors. First it parses the records and won't
import at all. I have to go to notebook for every file and manually fix it
then import. Even if all that goes well, I have been running into the
character limit of 255. I have the instruction field set up as a memo which
should hold more characters than that, but fat chance!

When I try to merge these files into Publisher I am running into the same
255 character limit and it doesn't import all the instructions for the
recipe. I don't really feel like manually typing the remainder of all the
applicable recipes, as I have already spent at least 100 hours getting to the
point I am at.

Can ANYONE HELP??!!! I am getting a serious headache!!!

 

[Guest]

1. CSV files can be a real problem if the data contains commas in it. In that
case you could try exporting in some format the seperates the fields with an
unusual character such as \ or ~. You might also be able to import using a
text delimiter such as double-quotes so that it ignores any commas between
the quotes.

2. Instead of a text field, use a memo field. You are allowed to have up to
64K characters in a memo field. However, memo fields have their own problems
and weaknesses. For example you might be able to get the data into Access,
but then have trouble exporting more than the first 255 characters. Also you
may have trouble keeping any fancy formatting.