I can't merge anymore....what happened???

[JillKB]

I have Word 2000 and frequently use mail merge...importing info from a
database type program to make mailing labels. My hard drive was recently
replaced & I re-loaded Word. But now when the merge is opened in Word I can
view the fields names <<name>> <<address>> , etc. but I can no longer view,
print or otherwise use the actual real data. There use to be an icon that had
an ABC on it that I would hit and the data would then appear....but this icon
is nowhere to be found. In fact, when I go to "view - toolbars", the
mailmerge toolbar is not even listed. I can't figure out where the darn thing
went. I tried re-installing Word & it made no difference. Any ideas? Thanks
in advance for your help!

 

[JillKB]

Additional Info for the above problem: The <<ABC>> function I was talking
about is called "field values". Merge is not listed under view toolbars but I
can find it under customize toolbars..including the ABC function. But if I
drag any of the merge menu to the toolbar they remain inactive.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

The chances are that your data source can no longer be found. This is
strange because normally, when Word opens a mailmerge document and cannot
find the data source, a dialog box pops up telling you. If you have been
seeing those dialog boxes you may have been unwittingly changing your mail
merge documents back into "Normal Word Documents" - in that case, what you
should do is try to ensure all the relevant data sources are in thesame
folders as before, before opening any more mail merge main documents.

However, in Word 2000, when Word thinks the document is a mail merge main
document, it pops up the Mailmerge toolbar automatically. So I think you
will have to go through the process of setting the document up as a mail
merge document again.

In this case, try using the Tools|Mailmerge option to open the
MailMergeHelper and
a. see what type of document Word thinks yours is - is it a "Normal Word
Document", a "Letter" merge document, or what? If it is a Normal Word
document, reselect the type of merge you need.
b. re-attach the data source (in theory, you might be using a header source
as well)
c. If you press Alt-F9, the field names <<name>>, <<address>> etc. should
show up as

{ MERGEFIELD name }, { MERGEFIELD address } etc. If they don't, things are
even worse than I'm assuming and you will need to re-insert the necessary
field codes in your document.

Peter Jamieson