WordStar for Windows

WordStar for Windows Mail Merge Doesn't Retain Special Characters
(accents, true apostrophes, em dashes, etc.)

Introduction

Using mail merge addresses, or other data, looses true apostrophes, em dashes, and accents from characters, etc. This is because, by default, WordStar for Windows uses the DOS OEM character set for mail merge imports and this character set does not support these characters.

Solution:

The solution to this problem involves changing the import character set setting to use the Windows ANSI character set instead of DOS OEM. This setting is held in the WordStar for Windows ini file and can be changed using any plain text editor like the Windows NotePad.

1. In NotePad, select: File | Open
2. Change the 'Files of type:' box to read "All Files (*.*)"
3. Browse to your Windows directory (folder) - usually C:\WINDOWS, or C:\WINNT
4. Select the file called wsw.ini
5. Click Open
6. Select: Search | Find...
7. Type "oem" (without the quotes) into the 'Find what' box
8. Click Find Next
9. Click Cancel
   
   The find will have put the cursor at a line that starts "; OEMData=1"
   
   
10. Scroll down the file until you get to the end of the block of lines that start with semi-colons, these represent comments in the file. Following the comments will be a block of settings (lines that don't start with a semi-colon), at the end of which will be a blank line followed by more comment lines that start with semi-colons.
11. Make sure the cursor is on the blank line following the comments
12. Type OEMData=0 into the blank line
13. Press Enter to create a new blank line below the new value
14. Select: File | Save
15. Select: File | Exit
16. Restart WordStar for Windows.

A mail merge should now contain all the ASCII extended characters

TOP

Copyright © 1999-2004 Michael Petrie, United Kingdom.

FAQ: Q1003