Wabash College: Technology

Help Desk

Knowledge Base - null zip codes merging as "0"s in WORD using file generated in Datatel

by Alice Moore

01/30/2006 (Software)

PROBLEM: When a download file is created from Datatel and is imported into excel as a CSV file, when you merge a numeric field that is null it prints as a zero. For example, a foreign student with no zip code, it prints a zero

SOLUTION: When a .CSV file is opened in excel, the fields come in as "general" format. Even if you try to change the column format to text or numeric in Excel, it still won't merge correctly. You must use the text import wizard to import the data and tell it is text data on the import, then the merge works correctly.