Excel Word Mail Merge

Y

Yendorian

Working with Office 2003, I am trying to merge data from an EXCEL file to use
in a WORD doc. and getting an intermittent fault. In all, I have 55 column
headings in my EXCEL workbook but when I try to merge these into my WORD doc
only 49 of them appear in the 'Insert Merge Field' tab and in the document.
I have tried using simple letters instead of full words as column headings
(e.g. "A" through to "BC" instead of "Surname", "Address" etc.) and there are
no hidden columns or spaces before the letters. On occasions I do get all the
required merge fields but only after closing down and starting the programme
again.
I azm merging using DDE as I want to preserve the formatting from the EXCEL
file.
Can anyone help, please?
Yendorian
 
B

Bernard Liengme

Have a look at these:
For help on Word mail merge using Excel as the data source have a look here

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/mailmerg.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MailMerge/CreateAMailMerge.htm

http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MailMerge/CreateADataSource.

50 min MS tutorial
http://office.microsoft.com:80/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC011205671033
Debra Dalgleish posted this: There's an article on the Microsoft web site
that might help you:
Answer Box: Numbers don't merge right in Word
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/assistance/HA011164951033.aspx

And if you prefer the old Mail Merge helper, Word MVP Suzanne Barnhill has
instructions here:
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CustomizingWord2002.htm
about half way down the page.
best wishes
 
Y

Yendorian

Hi Bernard,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I've looked through the links but cannot find
an answer to my query there.
I think I've got the actual creation of the mail-merge process correct -
I've done it several times before.
But i can't find an explanation as to why a few of my EXCEL column headings
do not appear in the 'Insert Merge Field' tab in my Word document. As I said,
I have 55 field headings called "A" through to "BC" but only the letters "A"
to "AT" appear on the 'Insert Merge Field' tab and the info contained under
mergefields "AU" to "BC" in the WORD doc appears as a 'Error! MergeField was
not found in header record of data source' message (which seems to be
logical).
Somewhere along the line, not all the columns of data are being transferred
from EXCEL to WORD.
Hope this makes it a little clearer.
Yendorian
 
Y

Yendorian

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I've looked through the links but cannot find
an answer to my query there.
I think I've got the actual creation of the mail-merge process correct -
I've done it several times before.
But i can't find an explanation as to why a few of my EXCEL column headings
do not appear in the 'Insert Merge Field' tab in my Word document. As I said,
I have 55 field headings called "A" through to "BC" but only the letters "A"
to "AT" appear on the 'Insert Merge Field' tab and the info contained under
mergefields "AU" to "BC" in the WORD doc appears as a 'Error! MergeField was
not found in header record of data source' message (which seems to be
logical).
Somewhere along the line, not all the columns of data are being transferred
from EXCEL to WORD.
Hope this makes it a little clearer.
Yendorian
 
Y

Yendorian

Sorry - I'm not with you as I am not using any code to do the mail merge.
Which code are you referring to?
 
R

ryguy7272

Sorry for the delayed response, and sorry that I can't be of more help. I'm
not sure what the issue is there. Without VBA code, the procedure should be
pretty simple, just follow the prompts, right. Make sure all of your columns
have headings and make sure there is no 'nonsense' data in there (data that
looks correct but is actually just garbage).

It sounds liek you knwo what you're doing. Maybe just take a look at this:
http://www.csd509j.net/district_inf...s/staff_development/word/mail_merge_excel.pdf
and give it another shot.

Regards,
Ryan---
 
Y

Yendorian

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your ideas on this. Your term garbage led me to check the data
being merged. I started with the last field to be transferred over - no
problem. Then in the next column that would not merge, I found a negative
figure (-£200) which I changed to a positive one to try. And no more problem.
It seems that in the format that I have, negative figures are not easily
merged as such. With a bit of Maths, I have managed to get round the problem.
But it might be useful to bear this in mind if any other people come across
the same problem in the future!
Thanks once again.
Yendorian
 

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