[solved] MS Word throws a popup dialog for file conversion when my mail merge CSV contains a "special character"

Solved - created the following registry key: \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Word\Options\DefaultCPG and set it to 000004e4

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So I do mail merges, which work fine, and have been fully automated, except for when this dialog box pops up, which halts the merge process until something gets clicked.

This popup only shows up when the CSV merge file contains a special character, something like an é in someone's name.

The CSV mergefile is encoded as ANSI, and converting it to UTF8 doesn't get around this popup.   

Is there any way to disable this popup?  I've been searching all day, and trying everything I can think of, but no matter what I do, I get this popup.

Thanks!