Can I default master document's data source to *current folder*

[Ian Douglas]

Hi

I'm using 'Word 2003'.

I have set up a master mailmerge letter document, say
'masterletter.doc' which gets its data from 'mydata.doc'.

When I open 'masterletter.doc' it displays a dialog saying:

=============================================================================
Opening this document will run the following SQL cmmand:

SELECT * FROM C:\Documents and Settings\pat\My Documents\mydata.doc

Data from your database will be placed in the document do you want to
continue?
=============================================================================

If I click 'Yes' the data is merged - no problem provided that
'mydata.doc' is in 'C:\Documents and Settings\pat\My Documents\'.

My issue is that 'mydata.doc' and 'masterletter.doc' will not always
be in the folder 'C:\Documents and Settings\pat\My Documents\', but
they *will* always be in the same folder as each other.

So I want the master mailmerge letter document to remember that the
data is in 'mydata.doc', which is to be found in the same folder as
''masterletter.doc'

I can't see a way of doing this via the mailmerge wizard.

Is there any way of specifying the location of the source data with
just <file name> rather than <path> + <file name>?

Thanks
Pat

 

[CAREA]

Hi Pat,

I am not sure if this is possible or not as the master document needs to be
tied to its data source in order for it to work properly. What I do is I
create a folder on our file server that contains all the data source
documents that I use. This way I know where all of the data sources are. I
usually name them the same as the master document that uses them but add data
on the end to denote it as the data source for that document. Again, I am
not sure if I am correct in my thinking but this has been my experience. You
can repath the data source each time you open the master document but that is
just adding steps to the process. I have found storing all the data sources
in one location works well for us.

Hopefully that helps you out even a little bit.

Chris
CAREA

 

[Doug Robbins]

See the following Knowledge Base article:

"Opening This Will Run the Following SQL Command" Message When You Open a
Word Document - 825765 at:

http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=825765

--
Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
interested. Questions sent directly to me will only be answered on a paid
consulting basis.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP