Microsoft KB Archive/158640

= PUB97: Can't Use Excel 97 Spreadsheet with Mail Merge =

Article ID: 158640

Article Last Modified on 8/17/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Publisher 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q158640



SYMPTOMS
If you try to use a spreadsheet file created by Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows as the data source for a Publisher 97 mail merge, you receive this error message:

Publisher cannot merge information from an Excel 97 worksheet unless it has been saved as an Excel 97 & 5.0/95 workbook.

If this is an Excel 97 file you can open it in Excel 97 and save it as a Microsoft Excel 97 & 5.0/95 Workbook.



CAUSE
The database conversion engine that Publisher uses was developed before the Microsoft Excel 97 workbook format was finalized.



RESOLUTION

 * 1) Open the .xls file in Microsoft Excel 97.
 * 2) On the File menu, click Save As.
 * 3) Click one of the following in the Files Of Type list:
 * 4) * Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)
 * 5) * Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls)
 * 6) * Microsoft Excel 97 & 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls)
 * 7) Type a new file name in the File Name box and click Save.

Publisher can use any of these types of files as the data source for a mail merge.



MORE INFORMATION
The Microsoft Excel 97 & 5.0/95 Workbook format is a special file format which can be opened natively by the following programs:
 * Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows
 * Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
 * Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0.

Note that a workbook saved in this format takes up more disk space than a file saved in Microsoft Excel 97 format.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Publisher 98.

Additional query words: 97 pub4 4.0 w_mspub mspub pub97

Keywords: kberrmsg kbinterop kbmerge kbprb KB158640

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