Export to Excel Limited to 255 Characters

[shaunmark]

When exporting to Excel from ACT, I can only export fields with a maximum of 255 characters. This happens regardless of the field type as I have tried with a character field containing more than 255 characters (450 character limit attempted) and a memo field. It always cuts off at 255. I am using ACT Premium 2009 and Excel 2007. I am curious if anyone else has faced this and any possible solutions. This also appears to happen when exporting from Access to Excel. Read post here:

http://www.dicks-blog.com/archives/2004/06/03/external-data-mixed-data-types/

It's older, but explains how to change the JET DB engine to allow Excel to accept more than 255 characters from Access. If this is possible between these programs, there must be a solution to fix this between ACT and Excel. I don't want to dig in the registry at random and I'm not sure how, or if JET is used in the export process for ACT, or it's something with SQL Server. If anyone has information that I could try, please let me know. ACT Tech Support has been contacted and I have been advised that the developers will be made aware, but I really feel there is a configuration out there somewhere that I don't know about. 

Thanks! 

[Anylise]

I HAVE THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!!  Did you ever find a solution?  I have looked everywhere, and cannot seem to find any answers. 

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Lawarts]

I know this post is more than 6 years old (!!!), but does anyone have a solution to this?  We have Act! Pro 2012 and I'm running into this issue.  I really need to be able to export the full text from the Details Field of the Opportunity Screen.  There has to be some sort of way around this nonsense...

[Roy_Laudenslager]

That's the field limitation in Excel, it's not an ACT! issue.

[Lawarts]

Hi Roy,

Thank you for responding, but that is not correct.  The character limit for Excel cells is much much higher than 255.

http://excel.tips.net/T003163_Character_Limits_for_Cells.html

Whether you're talking about the display limit or the actual entry limit, it's in excess of 1,000 for both.

[juancarlosoterogarc…]

Hello,  I am not an technology expert, but I found the following information on the Internet.

( It may be a Excel  limit  )

English

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Excel-specifications-and-limits-ca36e2dc-1f09-4620-b726-67c...

Spanish

https://support.office.com/es-cl/article/Especificaciones-y-l%C3%ADmites-de-Excel-16c69c74-3d6a-4aaf...

In my case, I export the Act! Tables information  ( Using sql server 2014 management studio )   to the CSV files...

Best regards,

[Gary W]

You can export the full field contents without the 255 character limit by exporting as CSV (File > Export > Selecting Text Delimited).

[Lawarts]

Gary W, thank you for the response.  I figured as much, but ACT will not allow me to export as CSV from the Opportunity record, which is what I really need.  I need to export to a spreadsheet (or CSV) a few key fields from the Opportunity record, including the Details field which often exceeds 255 characters.  I need to do this for a lookup of multiple records by Process/Stage.  We could probably restrict ourselves to 255 characters if we absolutely had to, but it's not ideal.  If anyone knows how to export a lookup of Opp records to CSV, I'd be very grateful.

[Roy_Laudenslager]

Check out the OakMerge utility, I think that may do what you want.