I'm having trouble merging Word document with MS Works database.

[Caroline1013]

We have over 100 fields in a database created in MS Works. I successfully
converted our merge documents to Word, and was finally able to merge with the
database (after deleting some very long field entries), but it takes a full
two minutes to import the data every time I open the document file. Is there
something else I can try, and would having MS Access make the merging much
quicker and easier? Thanks.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Having your data in MS Access probably would make the merge quicker and
easier, but there is an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" aspect to this:
the only way to find out if Access will help you is to try it, and try to
discover all the things that you would actually need to do to get it to work
for you and your users. For example, if you have users who regularly create
their own Works databases, they would either need to use a combination of
Works and Access, or learn how to do things the Access way, and so on.

You might of course discover that Access is a much better way to go in
general, and that its reporting facilities eliminate the need for
mailmerging. But there's only one way to find out...

If you are looking for something simpler than a complete overhaul, the main
thing is to see if there is a Works export format that works better than the
one you are using. Also, if you already have Access or Excel, you could
consider exporting from Works, then importing into Access or Excel, then
using that as the data source. The question then is "can your users do that
easily?" and that's generally where the problems start. Even if you do not
have Access or Excel, it is possible to create and populate an Access
database using, e.g. Word VBA and ADO, then use that as the data source for
a merge. But again, only you can really assess what the costs/benefits of
that might be.

Peter Jamieson