Publisher 2003 - Help needed from a Guru!

I'm currently using Publisher 2000 and am considering updating to 2003 to overcome a merge problem I have. I need to merge more than 250 fields of data for over 180 records from an Excel spreadsheet (2 I believe because I'm over the column maximum in Excel). With Publisher 2000 I can only send my merge results to the printer (or PDF). Not good enough! as I need to manipulate some of the results of my merge. I've tried merging in Word but it's not working well and I prefer Publisher as I can set the page exactly how I need to (it's basically Book layout). So ... will 2003 allow me to create a new Publisher document with a page for each of my source records? Do I have to use 2 Publisher templates because I have more than 250 fields (= columns in Excel)? If I use 2 templates then 2 separate merged files, my results will be a left page and a right page times the number of records I have. Can I then merge alternate pages from these two files into one new publisher document (that becomes my book)?

Hope all this makes sense. I'm getting desperate!

Hi SM_Aus ),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| I'm currently using Publisher 2000 and am considering updating to
|| 2003 to overcome a merge problem I have. I need to merge more than
|| 250 fields of data for over 180 records from an Excel spreadsheet (2
|| I believe because I'm over the column maximum in Excel). With
|| Publisher 2000 I can only send my merge results to the printer (or
|| PDF). Not good enough! as I need to manipulate some of the results
|| of my merge. I've tried merging in Word but it's not working well
|| and I prefer Publisher as I can set the page exactly how I need to
|| (it's basically Book layout). So ... will 2003 allow me to create a
|| new Publisher document with a page for each of my source records?
|| Do I have to use 2 Publisher templates because I have more than 250
|| fields (= columns in Excel)? If I use 2 templates then 2 separate
|| merged files, my results will be a left page and a right page times
|| the number of records I have. Can I then merge alternate pages from
|| these two files into one new publisher document (that becomes my
|| book)?

Publisher 2003 is limited to 255 "characters":
http://support.microsoft.com/default...roduct=pub2003

And Publisher 2003 supports the ability to merge to a new publication as
opposed to just printing.

I have not seen a field limitation in Publisher
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com
~pay it forward~

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

Thanks Brian.

255 fields in Excel is one issue, not characters in a description.

If it can create a new publisher document with the results of the merge (per Word) that is good.

Can I merge into Publisher 2003 from multiple worksheets within an Excel file or am I limited to one sheet and hence the 256 separate merge fields (columns) in one Excel worksheet?

"Brian Kvalheim - [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

Hi SM_Aus ),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| I'm currently using Publisher 2000 and am considering updating to
|| 2003 to overcome a merge problem I have. I need to merge more than
|| 250 fields of data for over 180 records from an Excel spreadsheet (2
|| I believe because I'm over the column maximum in Excel). With
|| Publisher 2000 I can only send my merge results to the printer (or
|| PDF). Not good enough! as I need to manipulate some of the results
|| of my merge. I've tried merging in Word but it's not working well
|| and I prefer Publisher as I can set the page exactly how I need to
|| (it's basically Book layout). So ... will 2003 allow me to create a
|| new Publisher document with a page for each of my source records?
|| Do I have to use 2 Publisher templates because I have more than 250
|| fields (= columns in Excel)? If I use 2 templates then 2 separate
|| merged files, my results will be a left page and a right page times
|| the number of records I have. Can I then merge alternate pages from
|| these two files into one new publisher document (that becomes my
|| book)?

Publisher 2003 is limited to 255 "characters":
http://support.microsoft.com/default...roduct=pub2003

And Publisher 2003 supports the ability to merge to a new publication as
opposed to just printing.

I have not seen a field limitation in Publisher
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com
~pay it forward~

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

Hi SM_Aus ),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| Thanks Brian.
||
|| 255 fields in Excel is one issue, not characters in a description.
||
|| If it can create a new publisher document with the results of the
|| merge (per Word) that is good.
||
|| Can I merge into Publisher 2003 from multiple worksheets within an
|| Excel file or am I limited to one sheet and hence the 256 separate
|| merge fields (columns) in one Excel worksheet?

You will only be given the option to choose WHICH sheet to merge from. It
will not let you choose multiple sheets. So if you have say 4 sheets in one
book, you will see all 4 sheets listed in the dialog, but you can only
choose one of them.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com
~pay it forward~

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

A small child turns to Ed, and exclaims: "Look! Look! A post from
SM_Aus !"...
255 fields in Excel is one issue, not characters in a description.

This is a limitation of Excel. I would suggest using a "real" database
application such as Microsoft Access for managing your data. AFAIK you can
have unlimited fields there.
BTW, how could you use more than 250 data fields, out of interest?

--
Ed Bennett - MVP Microsoft Publisher
http://www.mvps.org/the_nerd/
Before reading this message, view the disclaimer:
http://mvps.org/the_nerd/disclaim.htm