PUB98: Mail Merge Filters and Sorts Are Sometimes Case-Sensitive (179530)

SUMMARY

If you use a Microsoft Publisher address list or a Microsoft Access database as the data source for a mail merge, 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," and "Bat", and you sort it with a case-sensitive sort, it will be sorted as follows:

Bat
Cat
apple
dog

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

apple
Bat
Cat
dog

The address list tool in Both Microsoft Access and Microsoft Publisher 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.