WD: Accented or Extended Characters Lost in Mail Merge (181896)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word for Windows 95
  • Microsoft Word for Windows 95 7.0a
This article was previously published under Q181896
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. For information about how to do this, view the "Restoring the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or the "Restoring a Registry Key" Help topic in Regedt32.exe.

SYMPTOMS

If you use a text file (*.txt) as a data source for a mail merge, extended characters such as accented characters are replaced by symbols with no similarity to the expected characters. However, if you open the data source text file in the editor used to create the text file, the characters appear correctly.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when you use text files created in a Microsoft Windows- based word processing program, such as Microsoft Notepad or Microsoft Word.

In a text file, each character is saved as a numeric value. Windows-based programs usually use the numeric values in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) character set. MS-DOS programs, however, use the numeric values from the ASCII character set, which does not include the extended characters. Therefore, MS-DOS programs use the OEM character set to define the extended characters.

When Word sees a text file as the mail merge data source, it assumes that it was created in an MS-DOS-based program and translates the characters using the ASCII character set. As a result, the extended (accented) characters are lost.

RESOLUTION

To correctly use your text file (*.txt) as a Microsoft Word mail merge data source, use any of the following methods.

Method 1: Convert the Text File to Word Document Format

To convert the text file to Word document format, follow these steps:
  1. Open the text file (*.txt) in Word. The accented characters should be visible.
  2. Save the file as a Word document (*.doc).
  3. Use this file as the mail merge data source.

Method 2: Convert the Text File to Microsoft Excel Format

To convert the text file to Excel format, follow these steps:
  1. Open the text file (*.txt) in Excel. This starts the Text Import Wizard.
  2. Follow the instructions in the Wizard and then save the file as an Excel Workbook (*.xls) file.
  3. Use this Excel file as the mail merge data source.

Method 3: Modify the Registry Entries for Word

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys And Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).

To change the default behavior of mail merge text import, modify one of the following keys in the Windows Registry.

  1. Quit Word.
  2. On the Start menu, click Run.
  3. In the Run box, type REGEDIT, and click OK.
  4. Locate either of the following registry entries:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\3.0\Engines\Text

    -or-

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\3.5\Engines\Text

  5. Click to select the CharacterSet entry in the right pane.
  6. On the Edit menu, click Modify.
  7. In the Value Data box, type ANSI and press ENTER.
  8. Quit the Registry Editor and start Word.
Word now assumes that all text files that you use as mail merge data sources come from a Windows-based program. Word therefore uses the ANSI character set to import extended characters correctly.

NOTE: Extended characters in text files that were created in MS-DOS-based programs will be imported incorrectly, since this workaround applies only to Microsoft Windows-based programs.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:8/17/2005
Keywords:kbmerge kbprb KB181896
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