Microsoft KB Archive/179963

= DMM: Fixed Length Fields in Text Files Imported as a Single Field =

Article ID: 179963

Article Last Modified on 11/7/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Direct Mail Manager for Windows

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This article was previously published under Q179963



SYMPTOMS
If you import a text file containing fixed-length fields as your address list in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager, only the first field in the text file will appear in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager. The rest of the fields will be lost.



CAUSE
Microsoft Direct Mail Manager only supports comma or tab delimited information when it is in text file format. Text files containing fixed length fields will be incorrectly imported into Microsoft Direct Mail Manager.



WORKAROUND
TO work around this problem, you can convert the fixed-length fields to delimited fields. To do this, use the Import Wizard in Microsoft Excel to read the data and then save it as comma delimited vales. To do this, follow these steps:
 * 1) Start Microsoft Excel.
 * 2) On the File Menu, click Open.
 * 3) Change the Files Of Type to All Files (*.*).
 * 4) Locate the text file you want to convert and open the file.
 * 5) In Step 1 of the Text Import wizard, choose Fixed Width.
 * 6) Click Finish to complete the steps in the wizard.

The data should now be correctly aligned inside the spreadsheet cells of Microsoft Excel.
 * 1) On the File menu, click Save As.
 * 2) For Save As Type, choose CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv).
 * 3) Save the file.

You can now use the new CSV file for your address list in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.



MORE INFORMATION
For example, a fixed length text file would look like this:   Name           Address        City           State          Zip Jane Doe      100 Main St    Anytown        ST             12345-6789 Microsoft Direct Mail Manager will only read in the Name. All other fields will be lost.

However, comma-delimited or tab-delimited text files will be read correctly. In this example, it would look like this:   Name, Address, City, State, Zip Jane Doe, 100 Main St, Anytown, ST, 12345-6789

Additional query words: dmm

Keywords: kbbug kbpending KB179963

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