From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the item "Confirm File Conversion on Open" Then
when you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, a dialog
box will appear in which you can specify the method by which the connection
should be made. Try the different options and see if they make a
difference.

I am not really sure what you mean by the fields being dropped after the
30th column. You can always insert the fields directly from the keyboard by
holding down the Ctrl key and then pressing F9 to insert a pair of field
delimiters { } inside of which you type

{ MERGEFIELD "field name" }

Pressing Alt+F9 to toggle off the display of the field codes will result in
field name being displayed.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Snailspace" wrote in message
...
I have 84 columns of excel data to enter into a mail merge document.
Why are the fields being dropped after the 30th column? I am using
Word 2003 - is there a field quantity limit that I am not aware of?
If there is an issue with 2003 - would 2007 fix the problem?

Thanks!
Christine