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    Invalid Merge Field Error on Gift and Grant Detail when Merging Statements in Microsoft Word 365 Enterprise Installed or Microsoft Word 2019 Installed
    • 01 Jun 2023
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    Invalid Merge Field Error on Gift and Grant Detail when Merging Statements in Microsoft Word 365 Enterprise Installed or Microsoft Word 2019 Installed

    • Updated on 01 Jun 2023
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    Article summary

    When using Microsoft Word 2019 or Microsoft Word 365 Enterprise installed, the error invalid merge field occurs on the gift and grant section of fund statements.

    Steps To Duplicate:
    1. Go to Reports\General Ledger\Fund Statement export
    2. Run the process to export out the needed data files for fund statements
    3. Open up the fund statement template in Office 2019 Word or Office 365 Word
    4. Merge letter as normal being sure its connected to fndstat.txt file and that the gift and grant txt files are in the location referenced in the paths for gift and grant detail section
    5. See a box appear with a message that says 'Word is about to replace the current selection with the new database. Do you want to continue?'
    6. See error occur if you click yes, if you click no, nothing happens.
    7. Note that the error says invalid merge field amount, but it says that the data source is alpha sort which is not the case, the gift txt file does not have an alpha sort field. It appears to be the way Word is handling the database insertion.
    8. Note that this same error occurs if you try to completely delete and re-add the gift and grant detail.
    This issue does not occur in Word 2016 or Word 2013.
     
    Answer:

    Update:
    There is a new Office update, 16.0.14131.20278 that become available on June 29th, 2021. This issue no longer occurs in this update. Check Control Panel\Programs and Features to be sure you have this new update. If not, you can run Windows updates and this will be installed. Check with your IT person on getting this update:
     

    Version 2106: June 29 Version 2106 (Build 14131.20278)
     

    Previous work-around and steps to resolve:

    In the fndgift.txt file and the fndgrant.txt files, replace all "" with " " . Meaning that you will replace all quotes that are together like this "" with a space between them like this " ".

    Note: This issue only affects the data in the fndgift.txt and fndgrant.txt files, it does not affect the main fndstat.txt file. No changes need to be made in the fndstat.txt file.

    The easiest way to do that would is the following:

    1. Open up the fndgift.txt and fndgrant.txt file
    2. Click Edit from the menu
    3. Select Replace
    4. In the Find what field you will type in two double quotes together ""
    5. In the Replace with field you will type in two double quotes separated by a space " "
    6. Click the button that says Replace All

    7. Close the Window
    8. Save and Close the fndgift.txt file and the fndgrant.txt file after that replacement was done on each file
    9. Merge your fund statements, the errors should no longer occur. 


    Notes:
    • Unfortuantely for now, every time you extract new data from FIMS you will need to edit the fndgift.txt and the fndgrant.txt files in this manner, save the change prior to merging the statements in Word 2019 or 365.
    • Be sure that in your fund statement exports that you un-check the checkbox to automatically launch Word because the data files need to be edited before Word opens so you willl need to export the files first, edite them, then go to the template and open it. 


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