Access 2003 & Word 2003

[John R. Youngman]

Recently upgraded to Office 2003 on my XP Pro system. I can no longer
directly use Access data for merges. When I select my data source (an
Access query), it finds it and displays the field names properly. So far so
good. But, there is NO data displayed, so there is nothing to merge.

I've tried this with different queries but same result. If I export the
query data to Excel, then Word finds the sheet and all the data. Also, I
can export the query data to Word (as a txt file) and Word is OK. But
direct from Access query (or table) and no data.

I've tried reusing old documents and queries, creating new documents and new
queries, etc. but same problem--Word cannot see any data.

A SECOND problem involves placing merge fields on the document. I used to
have a "data merge field" dropdown on my Word toolbar. I don't have this in
Word 2003. When I'm setting up the merge fields I have to place the cursor
in the right place on the document, open the merge field dialogue box,
select and insert the field, then close the dialogue box, place the cursor
in the next location and start all over--opening and closing over and over.

Isn't there a way to click and insert or drag and drop merge fields any
more?

So far, this is my only problem with the new Word. I hope it's the last!

TIA for any help.

John

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi John,

Recently upgraded to Office 2003 on my XP Pro system. I can no longer
directly use Access data for merges. When I select my data source (an
Access query), it finds it and displays the field names properly. So far so
good. But, there is NO data displayed, so there is nothing to merge.

Do these queries contain wildcards (* and ?)? Can you merge to tables OK, it's
just queries? From which version of Word did you update?

A SECOND problem involves placing merge fields on the document. I used to
have a "data merge field" dropdown on my Word toolbar. I don't have this in
Word 2003.

Go to the Word 2002 section on my website. You'll find there:
1. How to get older functionality back
2. How you can create a dialog box that works the way the one in Word
2002/2003 should work (i.e. you can work in the dialog box and the document at
the same time)

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[John R. Youngman]

Cindy,

Thanks for the help. The upgrade was a big one--from '97 to 2003.

The queries contain the asterisk (*) wildcard. I found out that I need to
replace the asterisk with a percent sign (%) because of the change to ANSI
92 syntax. That's all fine now.

Thanks for the link to your website. I really like the "old" way that Word
lets you work with merges!

Thanks again.

John





> Recently upgraded to Office 2003 on
my XP Pro system. I can no longer

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi John,

The upgrade was a big one--from '97 to 2003.

yes, that's definitely a BIG jump, and not only for mail
merge! Glad things are working, now

Cindy Meister