ACC2000: Can't Export Part of a Table to a Text File

When you try to omit fields from the export specification in the Export Text Wizard, you may receive the following error message: Or, if you convert a database (created in an earlier version of Microsoft Access) that uses a TransferText action with a fixed-width export specification to output only part of a table, you may receive the following error message when you run the TransferText action:

Microsoft Access does not allow you to customize the export specification to omit specific fields from a table (or query). This behavior differs from Access version 2.0 and earlier.

You can create a query that includes only the fields that you want to export to the fixed-width or delimited text file. Then, you can run the Export Text Wizard to export the query and create an Import/Export specification with only the query fields. Or, you can run a TransferText action to export the query using the Import/Export specification created with an earlier version of Microsoft Access.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. In the Database window, under Objects click Tables and select the Orders table.
3. On the File menu, click Export.
4. In the Export Table 'Orders' As box, click Text files (*.txt, *.csv, *.tab, *.asc) in the Save as type box, and then click Save.
5. In the Export Text Wizard, click Fixed-Width.
6. Click Advanced.
7. In the Orders Export Specification dialog box, select the EmployeeID row and press DELETE.
8. Click Yes when you see the message "You are about to delete 1 record(s)".
9. In the Orders Export Specification dialog box, click Save As. Note that you receive the following error message:
   The number of fields in your export specification does not match the number in the table you have chosen to export.

For more information about exporting data using a fixed-width format, click Microsoft Access Help on the Help menu, type automate linking of data in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topics returned.