mailmerge using .txt address files

[Ben (TX)]

Hi all!

Several years ago I wrote an application that retrieves address field data
from a UNIX database, writes the data out to a tab-delimited text.txt file on
the local PC's C: drive, then calls Word to merge the addresses with
formatted Word documents.

I'm told now that Word 2003 SP1 doesn't work with the text files. Earlier
versions of Word work fine. Has Word 2003 stopped using merge data from text
files, or is there something different I have to do to make Word consume data
from text files?

 

[Doug Robbins]

You have been misinformed. Word 2003 certainly can use delimited text files
as a datasource.

Also, if you were to open the text file in Word and select everything, you
could use Table>Convert Text to Table, to create a table containing the
data.

To avoid getting lost with the Wizard, I would suggest that you select
Toolbars from the View menu and check the Mailmerge toolbar item so that the
Mailmerge toolbar is displayed. It contains buttons that allow you to do
all that you need to with mailmerge.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Ben (TX)]

Doug: Thanks for your reply -- and on a Saturday!

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm trying to call Word from a compiled C
program on the PC (VC++, VB, PowerBuilder, whatever), and have Word print out
the document unattended. The document knows to pull data from the text file,
but when you call it from the C application, it can't find the merge data.

I had it working on previous versions of Word, and I believe early Word2003,
but another developer has taken over the project and claims Word won't do it.
I believe it will, but I can't for the life of me remember how! I need to
jog my memory so I can ride into staff meeting on a silver steed and save the
day...

--
Thanks Doug!
Ben

You have been misinformed. Word 2003 certainly can use delimited text files
as a datasource.

Also, if you were to open the text file in Word and select everything, you
could use Table>Convert Text to Table, to create a table containing the
data.

To avoid getting lost with the Wizard, I would suggest that you select
Toolbars from the View menu and check the Mailmerge toolbar item so that the
Mailmerge toolbar is displayed. It contains buttons that allow you to do
all that you need to with mailmerge.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Doug Robbins]

Maybe something to do with the method of connection to the data source. See
the VBA help on the .OpenDataSource command.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

Doug: Thanks for your reply -- and on a Saturday!

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm trying to call Word from a compiled C
program on the PC (VC++, VB, PowerBuilder, whatever), and have Word print
out
the document unattended. The document knows to pull data from the text
file,
but when you call it from the C application, it can't find the merge data.

I had it working on previous versions of Word, and I believe early
Word2003,
but another developer has taken over the project and claims Word won't do
it.
I believe it will, but I can't for the life of me remember how! I need to
jog my memory so I can ride into staff meeting on a silver steed and save
the
day...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

When you're opening the data source programmatically, you have to take
account of

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;825765

and will probably need to add a registry key.

Peter Jamieson