Microsoft KB Archive/155108

= PUB97: Mail Merge Filters and Sorts Are Sometimes Case-Sensitive =

Article ID: 155108

Article Last Modified on 11/7/2002

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Publisher 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q155108



SUMMARY
If you use a Microsoft Publisher address list or a Microsoft Access database as the data source for a mail merge, your filtering and sorting are case insensitive. If you use a text file, Excel worksheet, or most other types of files as a data source, your filtering and sorting are case sensitive.



MORE INFORMATION
Case sensitivity means that lower-case letters are treated differently than upper-case letters (usually, upper-case A-Z followed by lower-case a-z). Case insensitivity means that both upper- and lower-case letters are treated in the same way. For example, if you have a list that includes the elements "Cat" "dog" "apple" "Bat", and you sort it with a case- sensitive sort, it's sorted as follows:

Bat

Cat

apple

dog

If you sort the same list with a case-insensitive sort, it's sorted like this:

apple

Bat

Cat

dog

Both Microsoft Access and Microsoft Publisher's address list tool create files in the Microsoft Database (.mdb) format. This is the format the Mail Merge database engine uses internally. Databases of other formats are converted. Converted formats are case sensitive, while .mdb files are not.

Additional query words: 4.0 merging w_mspub mspub pub4 pub97

Keywords: kbinfo kbinterop kbmerge kbusage KB155108

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