Microsoft KB Archive/96247

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Data File Character Formatting Not Retained in Merged Document
'Article ID: Q96247

Creation Date: 11-MAR-1993

Revision Date: 31-DEC-1996' The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Word for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a, 2.0a-CD, 2.0b, 2.0c, 6.0, 6.0a, 6.0c
 * Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
 * Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SUMMARY

In Word for Windows, if a print merge data document contains text with different character formatting, that text may appear incorrectly in the merged document. This happens because text merged from the data file takes on the formatting you apply to the corresponding field in the main document. As a result, the format of the MERGEFIELD field in the main document overrides any formatting you applied in the data document.

For example, if you insert a trademark symbol in your data document by pressing ALT+0226 and format the character for the Symbol font, Word replaces the Symbol font character formatting with that of the MERGEFIELD field in the main document when you perform the print merge operation. In the merged document, an accented uppercase A character appears instead of the trademark symbol (if the MERGEFIELD field is formatted with a font other than Symbol).

WORKAROUND

For the data field that contains special character formatting, insert a REF field in your main document instead of a MERGEFIELD field. For example, in place of the following MERGEFIELD field

{MERGEFIELD FIELDNAME} insert the following REF field instead: {REF FIELDNAME} Word retains the data document formatting for the results of the REF field, which preserves the special character formatting. The drawback to this workaround is that the print merge helper does not detect errors or suppress blank lines for this field. If you use this workaround, you must suppress blank lines and resolve any print merge errors manually for the REF field.

For information on suppressing blank lines when not using MERGEFIELD fields, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

winword and suppress and blank and line and 1.1 REFERENCES

&quot;Microsoft Word for Windows User's Guide,&quot; version 2.0, pages 153, 628-656
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KBCategory: kbusage

KBSubcategory: kbfield kbmerge

Additional reference words: 2.00 2.00a 2.00a-CD 2.00b 2.00c word6

7.00 word95 monotype sorts symbol wingdings dingbats zapfdingbats changes

word7 winword changed 6.00 winword2 winword word97 7.00a