access as word mail merge data source - confusion

[Renee Moffett]

In Word XP, I have a newly created letter that uses an Access table as it's
data source. I've done this before without a problem. But, for some
reason, a field I expected to see data in remained blank. When I checked
the table in Access, the data is truly there. So, I opened the .dot in word
and 'edited' the data source. The Mail Merge recipients box is "confused".
For example, State contains a data for a different field, as do other
fields. If I filter on the incorrect data, nothing results, so it somehow
knows the data it's displaying isn't really there. I assume this must be
the cause of my problem. Although, I can't say I've checked this is the
past. I didn't need to when everything was working properly.

I've recreated the table. I've changed the letter to a normal letter and
back to a .dot. Nothing has changed this behaviour. Can someone please
give me another step to try? I'm puzzled at what in the world is causing
this.

Thank you.

Renee

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I've seen a similar problem mentioned a few times before but am not sure
what the cause or solution is. Have you re-connected to the data source at
any point in the process? If so, I would do so. Is the table name exactly
right (could there be a query with a very similar name - if the database is
an "Office Address List" then Office does create a table and query with very
similar names and this can be a source of confusion)? Is there anything else
"unusual" about the table (e.g. the database uses an old version of the
Access format, it has lookup coulumns, it links to an external table? Also,
it may be worth checking Word Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversions at
open", go through the connection process again, and try each connection
method. As far as I know, when you do not check that option, Word 2002 tries
OLEDB, ODBC and DDE in that sequence.

 

[Renee Moffett]

Thank you Peter! Confirming conversions seemed to fix the problem.