These errors can appear for many reasons and there isn't a clear cut way to identify the reason. Usually the errors that Word displays aren't actually the issue. The typical things that lead to these errors include:
- Malformed outputs from the "Conditional Template" feature (more details here)
- Corrupted merge fields in the template
- Corrupted IF/THEN statements in the template
- Corrupted values in one of the fields of one or more rows of data in the data source
Here are several tests that can work through these potential issues:
- If there is one row with unsupported characters in the value of a field, you can get this error. To test for this, try running the merge on just one record from your data set (click on one row in the report then run the merge; it will only run for that record). If you get the error message, try a couple more single rows. If you get success for any other rows, then look at the rows that didn't work for unsupported characters like accented letters or emojis. Try updating the values and run the merge again.
- If you get the error for all single row tests, look for a non traditional field like a formula field that houses an image, or a barcode/QR code field. Run the merge without those fields mapped. If you get a success, then some adjustments may be needed for those special fields. We can help troubleshoot further.
- If you continue to get the error on all tests, there may be a corrupted item in your template. Watch this video about healthy merge fields. Make sure your fields align with best practices. If you have IF/THEN logic in your template, make sure your fields align with this article.
- If you use the "Conditional Templates" feature of Apsona and the templates all have varying formatting, this could cause the error. If you have chosen the output structure of "Single document with page breaks" try running the merge with separate files per record. If you don't get the error, then something about the combination of multiple templates into a single output is causing the issue and we can troubleshoot from there.
- Lastly, particularly large outputs can cause this error. If your output has hundreds (or many dozens) of pages, try running the merge on a subset of records in the data source that is smaller to see if a smaller file output avoids the error. If so, try a business process update of running the merge in two batches.
If none of these suggestions work, reach out and we can further troubleshoot with you.