Edit Recipient List

[Doo]

We have someone who's entering data using word vista. She somehow lost her
data view and the edit recipient list button is greyed. No matter what we do,
we cannot get the button to work. Suggestions?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

word vista

Let's assume you mean Windows vista + Word 2007 (it could be an earlier
version of Word)

If the Edit Recipient List button is greyed in Word 2007, as far as I know,
it means that when she tried to select the recipient list using the "Select
Recipients" option, it didn't work. In that case, what is she trying to
select? If it isn't Word 2007, let us know which version of Word.

 

[Doo]

We're using Windows XP and word 2007 (sorry I didn't make myself more clear).
She was using the data entry screen. I don't recall what it's actually called
but the field names are there in a little data entry style box. She bumped
something and it went into word, table mode. On the mailings tab, the buttons
for start mail merge and select recipients are usable but the edit recipient
list isn't. She can work with putting the data in in table mode, but she
preferred the data entry style box - the "old" way.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I'm not sure what is going on here, but see if you can make sense of this...

1. On the Mailings tab of the ribbon in Word 2007 you have
- Start Mail Merge
- Select Recipients
- Edit Recipients

2. Normally, when you create a new Mail Merge Main Document, you can start
by clicking either the first or the second of those. Only when you have
successfully selected a data source in "Select Recipients" does the Edit
Recipient List option become available. The option would be available if you
re-opened a mail merge main document wihth a data source attached and Word
successfully opened the data source.

If it's greyed out, that still suggests to me that she has not selected the
data source /successfully/ - i.e. she may actually selected it, but Word has
failed to connect to it and not displayed an error. I would consider
suggesting that she starts with a brand new document and tries again.

3. If it isn't actually greyed out, then when she clicks on it, she should
see the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box. The Edit button in there starts
greyed. Is that what she is seeing? To edit the data source data in there,
you have to select the data source "file" in the box above the Edit and
Refresh buttons. Then, if the data source can be edited, the Edit button
should ungrey.

4. However, what happens when you click on the Edit button in there depends
on the data source and how Word has connected to it. If the data source is a
Word document, you'll probably see the old "table" interface wher the fields
are listed in a single column with a a text box to the right. If it's an
Excel document and the connection is OLE DB (the defaul) you see an editing
pane that looks much more like a spreadsheet. If it's an Excel document and
the connection uses the old DDE method, the Edit button will probably be
available, but when you click it, nothing appears to happen (becuase in this
case, you're supposed to know that you go and edit the data directly in
Excel.

So what type of data source is she using? Does any of the above ring any
bells?