Setting Up Files For Merging With Wordperfect For Windows - Pitney Bowes DocuMatch Integrated Mail System Application Notes

Setting Up Files for Merging with WordPerfect for Windows

DocuMatch Integrated Mail System
TM
WordPerfect supports a variety of file formats for merge
data, including these:
• Access, dBase, Foxpro, and Paradox database formats
• Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel Spreadsheets
• Many word processors
• Delimited ASCII text
All the file format converters are not necessarily installed
when the word processing application is. If a necessary
converter is missing, rerun the install program. The pro-
gram tells you what program components are installed
and what other options are available. You can get other
converters from WordPerfect Customer Support or through
online services such as CompuServe or America Online.
If your merge data is in an ASCII file from another system
or application not supported directly by WordPerfect, you
must define the format of the file so WordPerfect can tell
where the fields and records begin and end.
The first step is to find out exactly what character(s) are
used to mark field and record boundaries in the data file.
For example, one common format encloses the field data
in double quotes, separates fields with commas, and
marks the end of each record with a carriage return/line
feed pair. You may be able to find out the format of the
data from the supplier of the data or the other application,
or if necessary you can use a file-dumping utility to analyze
the data.
Make sure there are no control characters such as escape
sequences in the merge data. These can interfere with the
file formatting during the merge. Also check to make sure
there are no blank lines or extraneous characters at the
end of the file. These generate errors on the last record
when the merge is performed.
DocuMatch Application Notes
19