ID: Q179963
The information in this article applies to:
If you import a text file containing fixed-length fields as your address list in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager, only the first field in the text file will appear in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager. The rest of the fields will be lost.
Microsoft Direct Mail Manager only supports comma or tab delimited information when it is in text file format. Text files containing fixed length fields will be incorrectly imported into Microsoft Direct Mail Manager.
TO work around this problem, you can convert the fixed-length fields to delimited fields. To do this, use the Import Wizard in Microsoft Excel to read the data and then save it as comma delimited vales. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Start Microsoft Excel.
2. On the File Menu, click Open.
3. Change the Files Of Type to All Files (*.*).
4. Locate the text file you want to convert and open the file.
5. In Step 1 of the Text Import wizard, choose Fixed Width.
6. Click Finish to complete the steps in the wizard.
The data should now be correctly aligned inside the spreadsheet cells of
Microsoft Excel.
8. For Save As Type, choose CSV (comma delimited) (*.csv).
9. Save the file.
You can now use the new CSV file for your address list in Microsoft Direct Mail Manager.
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.
For example, a fixed length text file would look like this:
Name Address City State Zip
Jane Doe 100 Main St Anytown ST 12345-6789
However, comma-delimited or tab-delimited text files will be read correctly. In this example, it would look like this:
Name, Address, City, State, Zip
Jane Doe, 100 Main St, Anytown, ST, 12345-6789
Keywords : kbdmm
Version : WINDOWS:
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug
Solution Type : kbpendingLast Reviewed: February 12, 1999