Data Trucated in word merge with excel source

[BAW]

I have a word merge that pull data from an excel source into a table. One of
the cells in excel has data over 255 characters long. All of the data does
show up within excel, but when I perform the merge, the data is trucated at
255 characters within the word table. I have previously performed the same
merge with the same data (on another computer) and all of the data (over 255
characters) was transferred into the merge. Is there ANYTHING I can do to
ensure that all the data is transferred? I have previously posted a similar
message, but at the time, thought the data was under 255 characters. The
suggestion was to try using DDE- which didn't work, but when I got it to work
on another co-workers computer, I didn't pursue it further. Now as I am
trying to re run the querry, it won't work on any of the computers in the
office, so I am back to square one. By the way, the data is truncated in the
"select recipients" window... Thanks, in advance, for your help!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Which version of Word/Excel?

One thing you can try if you don't have more than 63 columns is to select
the entire spreadsheet, copy/paste it into Word, then use that as the data
source.

Another thing you can try is as follows although unfortunately it may make
no difference...

Some Windows Registry entries could be making your machine work differently
from the others you have tried. I would be surprised, because I don't think
there are many reasons to change these values, and if they have been
changed, it suggests that some software on your machine needs a specific set
of values. Anyway, editing the registry is a "dangerous" activity that can
harm your machine, so you do this at your own risk:
a. start regedit.exe (typically in your Windows folder, e.g. c:\Windows
b. find the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel

c. Export the existing values into a .reg file in case you need to restore
them
d. Look at the TypeGuessRows value, which specifies how many Excel rows Jet
will look at
to try to determine the type of data. The default is 25. If you set it to 0,
Jet should scan all the rows and Word's behaviour may change. But you
cannot do this on a file-by-file basis.
e. More important, look at the ImportMixedTypes value - this can either be
"Text" or "Majority
Type". By defualt, I think it is "Majority Type".If it is set to "Text",
try changing it to "Majority Type". One effect of "Text" is that if it is
not overridden, the ODBC/OLEDB driver/provider will truncate texts to 255
characters.

If you can't find this key, it may be that you are using an older version of
Office that uses Jet 3.5, in which case have a look for the equivalent key,
or it could (just possibly) be that your machine has Jet 4 but that for some
reason the registry antries have not been set up correctly, in which case
you could consider creating these keys and values from scratch.

Peter Jamieson

 

[BAW]

We are using Word 2003.. and I have spoken with our IT person about changing
the registry. He did not recommend it and said that none of the other
machines should have been altered.. Back to square one!! I do have a work
around by just splitting the cell, but would rather not if there is a fix....

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I have spoken with our IT person about changing

the registry. He did not recommend it

Fair enough. I doubt we'll ever discover why the machines are different.

I'm having another look at this as I got halfway through some experiments
last year, but it is certainly the case that mixing text and numeric values
in a column can result in different behaviour depending on what is in the
mix and what settings are in force. It may take some time...

Meanwhile, can you check some things at your end. My current tests suggest
that you probably have some cells in the "truncated" column that just
contain numbers or perhaps date/times. if so, can you make a copy of your
sheet and change the cells (perhaps using Edit|Replcae) that have non-text
values into text values, and see if your longer texts then magically
reappear in the merge?

Peter Jamieson

 

[BAW]

Actually, all the data is text (actaully a description). Whenever the
description is very long, it will cut off the words. The shorter
descriptions merge properly. It looks like it is at about 255 characters,
but I am actaully assuming that is the case on each of the separate "lines".
I appreciate you looking into this!!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Well, I've tried most of the things I could think of here and in essence,
the behaviour only changes when I mix text and numbers (or some other form
of non-text data) in the column where you want the long texts in the first
25 rows of the spreadsheet. Nothing else really makes it go wrong.

So I have to conclude that since you don't have such a mix, either I'm
missing something, or my test data isn't complex enough (it's fairly
simple), or there's some form of corruption problem on your machine,
orthere's something else going on (I think that probably covers it!). It's
difficult to know how to proceed. If the "copy the sheet into Word and use
that as the data source" approach works, there is at least /a/ way to do
your merge. If the problem were occurring here, I would certainly consider
trying the following things
a. making absolutely sure that the OLEDB provider was not treating some of
the cells in the column in question as numeric
b. experimenting with a very simple sheet with two columns to see if that
worked. If it did, I would try recreating my Excel sheet from scratch,
especially if it has been upgraded from an earlier version of Excel
c. recreating Word's normal template and/or data key (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/ProbsOpeningWord.htm )
d. inserting 25 rows at the top of my sheet, with long text data in the
appropriate column, and excluding the first 25 rows in the merge

Peter Jamieson

 

[BAW]

Thanks for trying so hard to help. I think my problem may also be linked to
the fact that I am using a fairly large data source (19 megs). It may just
be a little quirky. I finally ended up with a work around.. I split the long
cells into two separate cells and then just included both within my mail
merge. It makes it harder to use the excel spreadsheet on a stand alone
basis, but at this point, at least I can accomplish my work...

Thanks again!!!