2007 MailMerge with Excel(DDE) requires Excel file to be opened fi

[JPal]

We have upgraded from Office 2003 to Office 2007.
Several WORD MailMerge documents that use EXCEL with DDE are not working
correctly after the change. Under 2003 we opened the Word document, it
opened the Excel data file, the dialog to connect the two was displayed and a
YES answer displayed the MailMerge document with the underlying data
displayed.

Under 2007, the connection between Word and Excel is established only if we
manually open the Excel file first. If the Excel file is not opened before
the Word mailmerge file then the connection process fails.

All files are on a network share and that network directory has been setup
as a Trusted Location in both Word and Excel. Not sure it matters but was
one of the things I tried attempting to resolve the problem.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
JPal

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Is the dialog box in which you select the method of connection being
displayed? If not, click on the Office button and then on Word Options in
the bottom border and then on Advanced and scroll down to the General
section and check the box against "Confirm file format conversion on open".

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[JPal]

Thank you for the reply...
Yes - The "Confirm File Format Conversion on Open" is checked and yes - the
dialog box asking the connection method is being displayed and I have
selected DDE. I have broken the original connection several times uner Word
2007 and reconnected the DDE link but still having the same issue of having
to open the Excel file manually before opening the mailmerge document.

Thanks,
JPal

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

While using DDE does cause Excel to open the spreadsheet, I do not have to
open it manually. It does however take quite a long time to open.

Do you have any macros in the spreadsheet that may be preventing it from
opening without first responding to a macro security dialog?

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Micko]

Not sure if this assists with diagnosis, but we've had a similar issue, this
only seems to affect spreadsheets that have protected worksheets in them, it
will not open them unless the spreadsheet in question is actually open.
However standard worksheets with no protection seem to open fine (I tested on
a tiny one page worksheet so could also be down to size I suppose).

 

[Akron]

We're having the same exact problem. We selected the Word option to confirm
conversion and we even put our network directory as a trusted location. We
can't open the Excel file in the normal way that Word 2003 did. We have to
do one of two workarounds. Either put a copy of the Excel file on the
desktop and use that one to open in Word - or - open the Excel file FIRST,
then open the Word document and do the merge.