Microsoft KB Archive/63491

Word Err Msg: o: Not a Valid Character for Field Names

PSS ID Number: Q63491 Article last modified on 11-02-1994

5.00 5.50 6.00

MS-DOS

= SUMMARY =

In Microsoft Word for MS-DOS version 6.0, when performing a Print Merge the following error:

o Cannot be used in field name

or in Word versions 4.0, 5.0 and 5.5, when performing a Print Merge the following error:

o: Not a valid character for field names

appears if there is a comma or tab after the last field name in the header record of the data document; this is read by Word as a null or blank field name. The message also occurs if the header record is formatted with a combination of commas and tabs as field delimiters or there is a paragraph marker above the header.

= MORE INFORMATION =

In Word versions 5.5, 6.0, the error message is “o is not a valid character for field names”.

When this error message appears, the print merge will halt after only a small portion of the data records have been merged.

The following is an example of a header record that returns this error message:

field1,field2,field3,field4,

The extraneous comma at the end of the header record must be deleted to eliminate the error message. When the header record is corrected, the print merge will execute correctly.

Another example of conditions that will produce this error is a paragraph marker that precedes the field header. For example:

{paragraph return} field1,field2,field3,field4

Please note that in Word version 4.00, the header record returns the error message:

Not a valid field name

The Print Merge halts as described above.

KBCategory: kbother kberrmsg KBSubcategory: kbmerge Additional reference words: ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1994.