Find Merge Datasource

[Alphonse Giambrone]

Word 2K, Access 2K.
I have a merge doc that uses an Access query as a data source. The query was
aparently deleted, so obviously the doc can not connect.
Is there any way to extract the name of the query from the doc?

TIA

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Alphonse,

Word 2K, Access 2K.
I have a merge doc that uses an Access query as a data source. The query was
aparently deleted, so obviously the doc can not connect.
Is there any way to extract the name of the query from the doc?

Probably not, but you could try opening it as plain text in Notepad, or
another text editor then scanning through the text. Or, a hex-editor. Word
does save some of this information as plain text in the binary file, the
problem is just getting to it...

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Alphonse Giambrone]

Thanks for the reply Cindy.
I would would think that the problem would be very common and that as
popular as Word Merge is MS would provide a way of extracting/relinking
without requiring a connection to the original datasource.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Alphonse,

I would would think that the problem would be very common and that as
popular as Word Merge is MS would provide a way of extracting/relinking
without requiring a connection to the original datasource.

Well, I'm not so sure that the query in an Access file getting deleted is
all too common FWIW, Word's mail merge feature is some fifteen years
old; back then, there weren't too many data sources to choose from...
Anyway, they just designed the binary structure of a Word document such
that, if you don't link up a data source, the document is no longer a
merge document, and therefore the information is no longer in the
document.

In the newest version of Word, using automation (VBA/macro) you can
relink to a datasource without having to go through the message box hoops
if something goes wrong. But there's no way to extract this information
from an unopened file (unless it's been saved in 2003 in WordML (XML
format)).

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Alphonse Giambrone]

Cindy,

Thanks for the info. Sorry for misstatement. I did not mean that it is
common for a query to be deleted, but rather that the data source set in the
doc might be invalid for any reason like path changes, source (including
query)deletion, etc.
In this particular case it was apparently a digruntled former employee who
managed to get into system remotely and do some damage. Unfortunately for
client (brand new for me) they had no usable backup of database.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Alphonse,

Thanks for the info. Sorry for misstatement. I did not mean that it is
common for a query to be deleted, but rather that the data source set in the
doc might be invalid for any reason like path changes, source (including
query)deletion, etc.

Yes, it does happen. And complaints are common. But if it's been moved (or
deleted) then someone has to go and find it... Word does usually tell you
where it expects to have found it

In this particular case it was apparently a digruntled former employee who
managed to get into system remotely and do some damage. Unfortunately for
client (brand new for me) they had no usable backup of database.

FWIW, Word doesn't store the SQL from a Query (or stored Proc, or whatever).
Ever. Only any additional SQL used during main merge to sort or further filter
the data coming in. Nor would I expect it should, it's not Word's "business"
to know how the data it's receiving is derived.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Alphonse Giambrone]

Thank you. I do appreciate all the info and input.