Microsoft KB Archive/224049

= WD2000: Error Message: Word Could Not Open  Because It Didn't Contain a Valid Database =

Article ID: 224049

Article Last Modified on 12/2/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q224049



ERROR MESSAGE
When you perform a mail merge with a text data source, the following error message may appear:

Word could not open  because it didn't contain a valid database.

The following error message may also be displayed:

Record 1 contained too many data fields.

NOTE: Microsoft Office 2000 has built-in functionality that allows you to get more information about difficult-to-troubleshoot alerts or error messages. If you want to enable this functionality for this and other error messages in Microsoft Office 2000, please download the Microsoft Office 2000 Customizable Alerts file from the Microsoft Office Update Web site at the following address:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8FBEE1D3-C5BB-4A36-A2F7-DC63DE2A818C

NOTE: If you reached this article by clicking the Web Info button in an error message, you already have Customizable Alerts enabled.



The delimiters selected in the Header Record Delimiters dialog box do not match the delimiters used in the data.
This problem may occur when you use a text file (*.txt) as a mail merge data source in Microsoft Word.

Data records are separated by a character called a record delimiter. Similarly, individual data fields are separated from each other by a character called a field delimiter.

To correct the choice of delimiters that Word uses to parse the text data file, follow these steps:
 * 1) On the Tools menu, click Mail Merge.
 * 2) In the Mail Merge Helper, click Get Data, and then click Open Data Source.
 * 3) In the Open Data Source dialog box, change the Files of type setting to Text Files.
 * 4) Locate and select the text data file, and then click Open.
 * 5) In the Header Record Delimiters dialog box, select the appropriate field and record delimiters used in the text data file, and then click OK.

For more information about managing a mail merge data source, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type plan and organize a mail-merge data source in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

The data source uses a field delimiter other than the tab stop or a record delimiter other than a carriage return.
When you create a mail merge document with a Word or Text Only data source in Word 97 and then open it in Word 2000, you may get the error message listed in the "Error Message" section of this article.

Word appears to stop responding (hang) when the Office Assistant is displayed. This error message appears in the Office Assistant balloon without any buttons for closing it, and the Word window is inaccessible. You have to use the Windows Task manager to end the Word task.

The same error message is displayed when you create the document in Word 2000 and then open it in Word 97.

To resolve this problem, obtain Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a).

To obtain SR-1/SR-1a, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

245025 OFF2000: How to Obtain and Install Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a)

Or, use one of the following temporary workarounds to open the Word 97 mail merge document in Word 2000:
 * For an existing Word 97 mail merge document, remove and reattach the data source in Word 2000.

For more information about removing a data source, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type remove associated data source in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

For more information about attaching a data source, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type attach a different data source in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

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 * For Text Only data sources, use an ODBC driver with the delimiters specified in the properties of the driver.

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 * Edit the data sources to contain the tab stop as field delimiter and the carriage return as record delimiter.

For more information about data fields separated (or delimited) by tab characters or commas, and data records separated by paragraph marks, click Microsoft Word Help on the Help menu, type text data source in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.

Additional query words: mailmerge

Keywords: kbdta kbprb wd2000 KB224049

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