Merging in Word with an Access binary field data source

[Guggly]

For some reason MS Word doesn't seem to support merging data from Access if the Access field type is binary. Anyone know of a workaround?

Access doesn't give binary as a field type when you create a table, but if you run a Make-Table query with one of the values containing Null, the data type for that field is created as binary.

Run this SQL string in Access to see what I mean.

SELECT 1 AS ID, Null AS BinaryValue, "Sample" AS [Text] INTO tblTest;

Now put a value in the BinaryValue field (and fill a couple other rows if you like) and then try to attach it to a Word MailMerge document. The merge engine recognizes the field, but won't use any of the data.

Any thoughts? Thanks! -- Mike

 

[Phaed]

do u not need to convert the binary 2 text? i know for getting graphics stored as byte arrays in Access fields, data is pulled out, set a temp file (txt - even though it is graphics file data as byte array); then opened/inserted into Word as a renamed file. also i think, you may nedto use StringFromGUID mehtod. the following from MSDN:

The Microsoft Jet database engine stores GUIDs as arrays of type Byte. However, Microsoft Access can't return Byte data from a control on a form or report. In order to return the value of a GUID from a control, you must convert it to a string. To convert a GUID to a string, use the StringFromGUID function. To convert a string back to a GUID, use the GUIDFromString function.

For example, you may need to refer to a field that contains a GUID when using database replication. To return the value of a control on a form bound to a field that contains a GUID, use the StringFromGUID function to convert the GUID to a string.

Note that in order to bind a control to the s_GUID field of a replicated table, you must click Options on the Tools menu and select the System Objects check box on the View tab of the Options dialog box.

 

[Guggly]

Thanks for your reply Phaed. Perhaps I do need to convert to text. I was hoping to not have to do that since I store only numbers in this field, though they get added in afterwards. I cannot use 0 to initialize the field, but I will see if I can use another value.

-- Mike