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Q142795: PRB: FoxPro DBF Opened/Saved by MacWord Alters File Type

Article: Q142795
Product(s): Microsoft FoxPro
Version(s): MACINTOSH:2.6a,3.0b
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 11-FEB-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, version 2.6a 
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b 
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SYMPTOMS
========

If a Microsoft FoxPro table is opened and converted to a Microsoft Word 6.0 for
Macintosh document and saved in Macintosh Word, it is no longer a FoxPro table.
Further attempts to open the table in Microsoft FoxPro will result is the
following error message:

  Not a table/DBF

CAUSE
=====

The FoxPro-dBASE converter used in Microsoft Word for Macintosh can't save the
file back to the original FoxPro format.

RESOLUTION
==========

Because the file is now a Word document with the same name the original FoxPro
DBF file, it must be saved to a format FoxPro can read, such as a text file. The
following methods show how to do it.

Method One: Append to FoxPro Table as a Text File
-------------------------------------------------

1. In Microsoft Word for Macintosh, open the converted FoxPro table as a Word
  document by choosing Open from the File menu and All Files in the List Files
  of Type list box.

2. Click somewhere in the table. From the Table menu, choose Select Table. This
  should highlight the entire table.

3. From the Table menu, choose Convert Table to Text. Then select Commas and
  choose OK.

4. From the File menu, choose Save As. In the Save File as Type box, choose Text
  Only.

5. Create a table in Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh by choosing New from the
  File menu. Select Table/DBF as the file type.

6. Enter the appropriate field name, type, and width to correspond with each
  field in the text file saved in step 4.

7. With this new table open, choose Append From...on the Database menu. In the
  File Type drop-down list, choose Delimited with Commas. Click the
  From...button and locate the text file created in step 4 above and hit OK.
  Then hit the Append push button.

Method Two: Use Microsoft Excel 5.0 to Read or Convert to the Text File
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Complete steps 1-4 in method one.

2. Open Microsoft Excel 5.0 for the Macintosh. From the File menu, choose Open.
  In List Files of Type box, choose Text files. Open the text file from step 4
  of method one.

3. From the File menu, choose Save As. In the Save File as Type box, choose DBF
  4. This new file can simply be opened in FoxPro as a table/DBF.

  NOTE: If you are using Excel 4.0 or an earlier version, check the Microsoft
  Excel manuals on the procedure used to save the spreadsheet file in a DBF
  format. Also, this step could be broken into another method. Instead of
  saving the file as a DBF from Microsoft Excel, you could save the file as a
  Microsoft Excel spreadsheet XLS version 4 or earlier. This is because FoxPro
  cannot open Microsoft Excel 5.0 spreadsheets. Then in FoxPro, issue the
  following command in the Command window, with the correct path to the
  spreadsheet:

     IMPORT FROM "Macintosh HD:Excel:test.txt" TYPE XLS

Method Three: Look for Backup .BAK of the Table in FoxPro
---------------------------------------------------------

1. Check the hard disk for the existence of the old table name with a .bak
  extension. If one exists, then in FoxPro, choose Open from the File menu.
  Select Table/DBF in the Type list box, and select the All Files check box.
  Find the .bak file, and choose Open. The data in this table will probably be
  old, but the structure should be the same.

2. This table structure can be used in place of step 6 in method one, or the
  text file can be appended directly to the end of this backup table by
  following step 7 in method one. If you want to use this table structure but
  start with an empty database, it is probably better to copy the structure to
  another table rather that delete all records in the .bak file. This way there
  would be a backup of the old data. After following step 1 in this section,
  type the following commands in the Command window:

     COPY STRUCTURE TO temp
     USE temp

  This will copy the structure to another table named temp and then open the
  table. From here, follow step 7 in method one to append the text file to this
  table.

STATUS
======

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION
================

This problem is most likely to occur when a FoxPro table is used in a Microsoft
Word for the Macintosh mail merge. After the mail merge has completed and the
user begins to close the documents in the mail merge, the user will receive this
warning message:

  Document 1 is a mail merge main document that is attached to a data source
  <table.dbf> that has not been saved. Do you want to save
  <table.dbf>?

  <Yes> <No> <Cancel> <Help>

If you click Yes, the table is no longer a FoxPro table. It is saved as a Word
table in a Word document. Word changes the file type to WGBN for Word from
FoxPro's APPL, and it changes the creator type to MSWD for Word from FoxPro's
FOXX. This can be checked by opening the file in Apple's Resource Editor,
ResEdit. In addition, Word replaces the FoxPro file header with a Word header,
so you can't simply use ResEdit to change the creator and file types. All
attempts to open the file in FoxPro will result in the error message given in
the "Symptoms" section of thie article.

Additional query words: VFoxMac FoxMac

======================================================================
Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbHWMAC kbOSMAC kbVFPsearch kbAudDeveloper kbFoxproSearch kbFoxPro260aMac kbVFP300bMac
Version           : MACINTOSH:2.6a,3.0b

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