The way that I'm aware of to handle that is what Cetin suggested: placing the fields in a table.

I guess the other thing I'd check is justification in the Word fields.

Jay

>"registration problem in columns in Word"? Are you referring to how they line up?
>
>Anyway, yes, it is a comma and quote delimited file. The first line are the mergefield names and the following are the actual data. What happens is the grade and fee mergefield position move based on the length of the data for the student mergefields. Clearer?
>
>>Colin --
>>
>>Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're working with already.
>>
>>

>>Student          Grade          Fee
>>student1         grade1         fee1
>>

>>
>>The layout needed to be in columns.
>>
>>A change in the length of the student's name changed the registration of the grade and fee data in that row. I thought that the Student, grade and fee data were concatenated into one row and that that gave a problem. Separating that data into 3 columns and assigning to separate fields in the Word document is a solution and that's what I was suggesting.
>>
>>But, it looks like your input stream is a comma-delimited string. Are you processing each column individually assigning to a separate field and still getting a registration problem in columns in Word?
>>
>> Jay
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>Sorry, mistake there. Would be like the following.
>>>
>>>Not sure what you mean here. In the text file the data would be like the following:
>>>
>>>

>>>Student1,Grade1,Fee1,Student2,Grade2,Fee2,Student3,Grade3,Fee3,Student4,Grade4,Fee4
>>>"student1","grade1","fee1","student2","grade2","fee2","student3","grade3","fee3","student4","grade4","fee4"
>>>"student1","grade1","fee1","student2","grade2","fee2","student3","grade3","fee3","student4","grade4","fee4"
>>>"student1","grade1","fee1","student2","grade2","fee2","student3","grade3","fee3","student4","grade4","fee4"
>>>"student1","grade1","fee1","student2","grade2","fee2","student3","grade3","fee3","student4","grade4","fee4"
>>>

>>>
>>>Can you ellaborate based on this?
>>>
>>>>Colin --
>>>>
>>>>It seems the easiest way to do this is to use 3 fields rather than one, and parse the mergefield text to extract the 3 fields.
>>
>>Is this an option?
>>>>
>>>>Jay
>>>>
>>>>>This question is from the Word side of things as opposed to VFP but figured this group is the best to ask so:
>>>>>
>>>>>I have a comma and quote delimted text file for the mailmerge. The mailmerge fields need to be lined up in columns, so they are layed out like the following:
>>>>>
>>>>>

>>>>>Student          Grade          Fee
>>>>>student1         grade1         fee1
>>>>>student2         grade2         fee2
>>>>>student3         grade3         fee3
>>>>>student4         grade4         fee4
>>>>>

>>>>>
>>>>>The trouble is the grade and fee mergefield positions shift depending on the length of the student mergefield.
>>>>>
>>>>>Is there a way to ensure a mergefield takes up a certain amount of space, no more and no less, without padding the mergefield values and using a non-proportional font? The client has a font standard for all documentation so that is not an option.