Create Office Address List (2007)

[BoomerM3]

I am using Word 2007 and Access 2007.

I want to be able to import/convert or something a set of data from MS
Access into the Word Office Address List. But there seems to be some
'incompatibility' with the mdb file.

If I manually create the file in MS Word and save it, I can't open it
in Access. The error message is: "Unrecognized database format".

Is there a way to get my Access data into the Word List?

peter

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You will certainly see a message like that if you try to open the OAL in
Access when a Word MailMerge Main document that is connected to it is
still open.

But in any case, there /is/ a problem working with OALs in Access -
although they are perfectly normal Jet .mdb format databases
a. they are created programmatically by Word, not Access (I think Word
uses ADO or OLEDB to do it) which means they are probably not quite the
same as the ones that would be created by Access. I do not know if that
has any consequences - they may well be functionally identical.
b. they have a very specific structure (a single table with a bunch of
text fields and no primary key, and a single query that retrieves
everything from that table). If you stray too far from that structure,
Word treats them as "ordinary" .MDBs and not OALs. Precisely what "too
far" is, I have never been able to discover either by asking MS or
testing, but for example if you add a couple of tables to an OAL Word
will not treat it as an OAL. And many things you do in Access will add
stuff like that.

So if you are going to work with an OAL, I suggest you
a. make a backup copy first.
b. create a new database, or open an existing non-OAL one
c. link to the OAL's table from that database
d. do not open the OAL directly in Access - work with the linked table
e. do a few tests to ensure the OAL is still an OAL before making
large numbers of modifications.


Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com]

Why not just use the actual Access data.

--
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, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com