Is there a way to use a WordPerfect .Dat file as a source for a Word 2003 document?

[AmandaH]

So here is my problem, I have 1000's of data files containing a lot of
information. Each of this .dat are in WordPerfect and are used to merge
with 100's of other documents for office use. Now, I have been asked if
it is possible to use a WordPerfect .dat file as a source for a Word
Documents. Is this possible without finding every dat file and
converting it to Word?

thanks,

~Amanda~

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi AmandaH,

So here is my problem, I have 1000's of data files containing a lot of
information. Each of this .dat are in WordPerfect and are used to merge
with 100's of other documents for office use. Now, I have been asked if
it is possible to use a WordPerfect .dat file as a source for a Word
Documents. Is this possible without finding every dat file and
converting it to Word?

I'm pretty sure Word can't work directly with a DAT file. Each DAT file
will need to be opened and processed. As I recall, best results are
obtained by setting up a special merge in Word Perfect. Insert each
field, separated by a TAB or some other character that doesn't otherwise
appear in the data. Run the merge. The result will be a
character-delimited listing of the data. Now put the field names at the
top of the file, separated by the same character. Save as a plain text
file. Word can use this as a data source with no problems. Example:

LastName;FirstName;Street
Doe;John;100 Main Street
Brown;Mary;2501 First Ave

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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