Edit an in Word 2002 created datalist in Access

[Luc Sanders]

Hi,
Word 2002 - SP2
I have made a new datalist in Word 2002 which resulted in an Access
database. Then I opened the data list (Office_Address_List) in Access and
tried to change the design (addings fields) or changing the type of the
field, saved the lot and closed Access. In Word 2002 upon opening and using
the mailmerge wizard the changes in the datalist seem to have vanished. The
new fields do not show up and the fields from which the type was modified
turn up greyed out. At some point even the edit button itself was greyed
out.
My question, can you only edit the data list from within Word and not from
within Access? If so is this by design? Or can something be done about it?
Any help would be welcome
Luc

 

[Peter Jamieson]

My question, can you only edit the data list from within Word and not from

within Access?

Roughly speaking, Office Address List .mdbs have a very specific structure -
for example, there is a table called Office_Address_List and a Query called
Office Address List (no underscores) that is the actual data source. When a
..ndb has this structure and you try to use it as a data source, you may
notice that Word does not even ask you which of the two possible data
sources you want to use. Although some changes to the structure may be
allowed (for example, I think you can add one table to the database, but not
two) if you make changes to the field list or field types, Word seems not to
recognise the .mdb as an OAL any more, and when you next try to connect it
will prompt for the data source, and will disallow edits in the Edit
Recipients dialog box as you have noticed. If you haven't actually
re-connected, Word may well get confused as it is no longer seeing the
structures it expects.

So although I think you can edit the data using Access, it's the structure
that you cannot change.

If so is this by design?

I don't know, but I assume it is, probably because providing a data editor
that will work with any Access table
a. is harder
b. might undermine Access sales
c. is probably going to result in more security problems.

Or can something be done about it?

If you have users who have Word but not Access and they want to edit their
data, they can probably do it by using MS Query which connects using ODBC
and only requires Jet, not Access, to be present. It's really awkward, but
it is /a/ way. You can get to MS Query from within Word's Select Data Source
dialog using the Tools menu.

 

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Luc,

My question, can you only edit the data list from within Word and not from
within Access? If so is this by design?

If you want to edit the data list in Word, then you can only do so in Word.
Making any changes using Access "invalidates" the database as far as Word's
data editing feature is concerned.

However, you should be able to reconnect to the database and use it as you
would any Access database - just merge in the data.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jan 24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Luc Sanders]

Thanks to you both for the prompt reply!!!
Luc

Hi Luc,

If you want to edit the data list in Word, then you can only do so in Word.
Making any changes using Access "invalidates" the database as far as Word's
data editing feature is concerned.

However, you should be able to reconnect to the database and use it as you
would any Access database - just merge in the data.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jan 24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail