Can't edit recipient list

[bdmars]

I have a PC using Word XP and Access 2003 and when the user does a mail
merge and selects the database she can't edit the recipient list. She
clicks on the Edit button but it just flashes the list for a second and
nothing happens. This was working fine until recently and nothing
changed on the PC that I'm aware of, or at least that she admits to.
And it works fine with these same 2 documents on other computers using
the same versions. One additional thing is that when she used to select
the database it would immediately bring up the recipient list but now
it asks for the table name first, and once the table is selected it
will bring up the list. But originally, and on the others users PCs
currently, it did not ask you to select the table first. This is not a
problem itself but rather apparently another symptom that might help
identify the problem.

Thanks

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I haven't used the specific Word XP/Access 2003 combination you are using
but Word will only let you edit the Recipient List if it thinks it is in a
special format called Office Address List (OAL) format. This is just a
typical .mdb but with exactly one table with a specific name and exactly one
query with a similar name. It is easy to damage OALs if, for example, the
user tries to edit them or do soemthing else to them in Access.

So...

And it works fine with these same 2 documents on other computers using
the same versions.

Are you definitely using exactly the same file? Or could the file on the
"problem" system have been altered? If you copy the .mdb from one of the "OK
systems" to the "problem system", does it all work again? If not, something
else must be preventing Word from recognising the file as an OAL.

Peter Jamieson