Works Suite: Unable to Use a Works .Wdb File as Mail Merge Data for a Word Document

When you attempt to use a Microsoft Works 2000 Database or a Microsoft Works 2001 Database as a mail merge database for a Microsoft Word document, you may receive the following message in the Mail Merge Helper: In addition, the data in the Preview box contains non-standard characters.

After you click OK and then click Insert Merge Field on the Mail Merge toolbar, the field name that appears contains non-standard characters.

This behavior can occur if you attempt to use the Word Mail Merge Helper to merge the Works Database.

To use a Works Database as mail merge data for a Word document:

1. Use the Works Task Launcher to start Microsoft Word.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Mail Merge, and then click Document Type.
3. Select a document type (for example, Form Letter), and then click OK.
4. In the Open Data Source dialog box, click Merge information from another type of file.
5. In the Files of type box, select Microsoft Works database(*.wdb).
6. Browse to find the .wdb file that you want to use, and then click Open.
7. On the Mail Merge toolbar, click Insert Merge Field to insert the data fields that you want to merge.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.