Merge document (word 97, sr2 Win98)

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Merge document has been working fine. Data is contained in Excel. The whole merge process seems still to be intactum and all fields are OK.
But,….trying to insert a new merge field – the drop down list which would normally be populated with many field headings from the Excel workbook is totally blank. The drop down which appears does actually extend quite a way down so it looks as if the fields are actually “invisible” or hidden.

Q1. Is there a limit to the number of fields usable as merge fields (I seem to recall a figure of 40 being bandied about, which kind of coincides with the number of fields viewable in the standard MS-Excel form)?
Q2. Has anyone seen this before and managed a solution?

Many thanks in advance.
Alan
Cheshire
UK

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I have seen this when merging from Excel many times. I found that if you click away from the list and click back to it, the field names sometimes then appear. Fidget it a bit and the field names will eventually show up. Really.

MS KB offers two workarounds for a similar issue at this link Q105745, but my problem and the one you describe differ slightly from the article in that the list appears, but is blank, right? I do not find an article specific to this problem.

Darned annoying, eh?

Maximum number of fields from various data sources are listed in this article: Q238237. Read the “More Information” section for the numbers.

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Thanks Van, I preferred the ‘fidgeting’ solution to the one offered by MS.
Yeah, I’ve seen it a few times previously as well but it’s just one of those things that went beyond annoying, specially when the clients looking over my shoulder and saying “Oh, and why don’t the fields appear then?”
I fidgeted, I cursed, I had a mild bout of mouse rage, but the final solution was:- go back to desktop and change display properties to something more like they should be. Voila, the fields re-appeared. Thh screen was on 16 bit and is now on true colour, the refresh rate (I am reliably informed from IT admin), was set to 75khz when 85khz was more suitable for the screen. I don’t know if this will work as a universal solution, but it was well worth figeting with.
Thanks again
Alan
Cheshire
UK

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