Is Word 2003 SP2 Mailmerge buggy?

[Mike]

I started out with a text data file layout with such fields as
name, addr1, addr2, addr3, postcode
and from there I built a "labels" mailmerge document

In my excel application, I ask how many avery labels I want to skip,
since I may only be printing one or two labels each time and may have
used labels at the start, so I write the appropriate number of blank
lines with say just 4 vbTab characters

Then I write the data, and open the mailmerge document which uses the
text file as its data source.

Often the first time the processed mailmerge document is produced, the
number of blank labels is wrong - it's usually 1 too many. At this
point I manually took a copy of the data source. My app asks if the
labels were OK, so I say No, and I repeat the process. This time, the
number of blank labels is correct. This is despite the "size"
attribute (not size on disk) for both files being exactly the same.

I didn't have this problem in Word 2000, although when I migrated to
2003 I had to recreate the mailmerge document, because the user
interface I was presented with didn't seem to work quite right on a 200
file (maybe I kept getting popups about version diffs I can't quite
remember)

Anyway I've just managed to find SP3 for 2003, but is this a known bug?
I couldn't find it documented anywhere

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Are you writing the text file while the Word mail merge main document is
open, with the .txt file open as the data source? (Actually, I am not sure
that you can do that, but if you can, I'm wondering whether Word can get
confused).

 

[Mike]

In message <[email protected]>
at 19:24:28 on Tue, 9 Dec 2008, Peter Jamieson

Are you writing the text file while the Word mail merge main document is
open, with the .txt file open as the data source? (Actually, I am not sure
that you can do that, but if you can, I'm wondering whether Word can get
confused).

Thanks for your reply

No - I format my text file using this sort of code

giHandle = FreeFile
Open ThisWorkbook.Path & "\EbayLabelsData.doc" For Output As #giHandle

Print #giHandle, lsHeader

For liCount = 1 To liSkip
Print #giHandle, lsBlank
Next

# Print a line of data
Print #giHandle, lsString

Close #giHandle


And then immediately open the mail merge main document.


'************************
'* Open Labels document *
'************************
Sub WordLabels()

Dim loWord As Word.Application


'See if word's already running
On Error Resume Next
Set loWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If Err Then
'No, so start a new word session
Set loWord = New Word.Application
Err.Clear
End If

loWord.Documents.Open (ThisWorkbook.Path & "\EbayLabelsV2.doc")
loWord.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
SetQueue loWord
loWord.Visible = True
loWord.Activate
WaitDocClose loWord

Set loWord = Nothing

End Sub


Should I put a small delay in before calling WordLabels, or could this
be coded in a better way. SetQueue is a procedure I have for changing
my default print queue to the one I use for labels. Once the document
appears, I then manually select File/Print

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Mike-

I'll have a look, but it won't be today.

 

[Mike]

In message <#[email protected]>
at 21:49:05 on Tue, 9 Dec 2008, Peter Jamieson

Mike-

I'll have a look, but it won't be today.

Cheers. I've lived with this bug for about 18 months now - a few more
days won't hurt

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hi Mike,

I tried the Excel VBA code below (you don't actually need any data in the
sheet), using Word 2003 SP/3/ (which is the nearest I can get, at least
reasonably easily) and so far always get 3 blank labels as the code
suggests.

Maybe you could
a. try it at your end and see whether you get the same result, or type of
result, that you have been getting so far
b. tell me whether I am obviously not testing the same thing as you (e.g. I
think I am creating a header, three blank tab-delimited records, then some
non-blank records)

If (b) is OK but you are still seeing inconsistent behaviour, I suppose it
either has to be
c. SP2 v. SP3 or
d. some other configuration difference between our systems (e.g. I am
running XP on a Virtual machine here and disk-related operations may go much
faster than on a real machine) or
e. something you are doing, i.e. almost certainly in SetQueue

'Here it is
Sub openit()
Dim giHandle As Integer
Dim liCount As Integer
Dim liSkip As Integer
Dim liLabels As Integer
Dim lsBlank As String
Dim lsHeader As String
Dim lsLabel As String
giHandle = FreeFile
lsHeader = "k" & vbTab & "field1" & vbTab & "field2"
lsBlank = vbTab & vbTab
liSkip = 3
liLabels = 20
Open ThisWorkbook.Path & "\LabelsData.doc" For Output As #giHandle

Print #giHandle, lsHeader

For liCount = 1 To liSkip
Print #giHandle, lsBlank
Next

'# Print some lines of data
For liCount = 1 To liLabels
lsLabel = CStr(liSkip + liCount)
Print #giHandle, lsLabel & vbTab & "data" & lsLabel & "1" & vbTab & "data"
& lsLabel & "2"
Next

Close #giHandle

Call WordLabels

End Sub

'************************
'* Open Labels document *
'************************
Sub WordLabels()

Dim loWord As Word.Application
Dim loDoc As Word.Document
'See if word's already running
On Error Resume Next
Set loWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If Err Then
'No, so start a new word session
Set loWord = New Word.Application
Err.Clear
End If

Set loDoc = loWord.Documents.Open(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\LabelsV2.doc")
loWord.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
'SetQueue loWord
loWord.Visible = True
loWord.Activate
loDoc.MailMerge.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument

loDoc.MailMerge.Execute

'WaitDocClose loWord
loDoc.Close savechanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges

Set loDoc = Nothing
' do not quit word
Set loWord = Nothing

End Sub

 

[Mike]

In message <#[email protected]>
at 18:45:20 on Wed, 10 Dec 2008, Peter Jamieson

Hi Mike,

Hi thanks for your reply.

I tried the Excel VBA code below (you don't actually need any data in
the sheet), using Word 2003 SP/3/ (which is the nearest I can get, at
least reasonably easily) and so far always get 3 blank labels as the
code suggests.

Maybe you could
a. try it at your end and see whether you get the same result, or type
of result, that you have been getting so far
b. tell me whether I am obviously not testing the same thing as you
(e.g. I think I am creating a header, three blank tab-delimited
records, then some non-blank records)

That's spot on yes

If (b) is OK but you are still seeing inconsistent behaviour, I suppose
it either has to be
c. SP2 v. SP3 or
d. some other configuration difference between our systems (e.g. I am
running XP on a Virtual machine here and disk-related operations may go
much faster than on a real machine) or
e. something you are doing, i.e. almost certainly in SetQueue

'Here it is
Sub openit()
Dim giHandle As Integer
Dim liCount As Integer
Dim liSkip As Integer
Dim liLabels As Integer
Dim lsBlank As String
Dim lsHeader As String
Dim lsLabel As String
giHandle = FreeFile
lsHeader = "k" & vbTab & "field1" & vbTab & "field2"
lsBlank = vbTab & vbTab
liSkip = 3
liLabels = 20
Open ThisWorkbook.Path & "\LabelsData.doc" For Output As #giHandle

Print #giHandle, lsHeader

For liCount = 1 To liSkip
Print #giHandle, lsBlank
Next

'# Print some lines of data
For liCount = 1 To liLabels
lsLabel = CStr(liSkip + liCount)
Print #giHandle, lsLabel & vbTab & "data" & lsLabel & "1" & vbTab &
"data" & lsLabel & "2"
Next

Close #giHandle

Call WordLabels

End Sub

'************************
'* Open Labels document *
'************************
Sub WordLabels()

Dim loWord As Word.Application
Dim loDoc As Word.Document
'See if word's already running
On Error Resume Next
Set loWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If Err Then
'No, so start a new word session
Set loWord = New Word.Application
Err.Clear
End If

Set loDoc = loWord.Documents.Open(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\LabelsV2.doc")
loWord.WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
'SetQueue loWord
loWord.Visible = True
loWord.Activate
loDoc.MailMerge.Destination = wdSendToNewDocument

loDoc.MailMerge.Execute

'WaitDocClose loWord
loDoc.Close savechanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges

Set loDoc = Nothing
' do not quit word
Set loWord = Nothing

End Sub

Pete
I'll get back to you later - the only thing we do fundamentally
different is I do the mailmerge within my mailmerge document

Private Sub Document_Open()

MailMerge.Execute

'Set properties of created mail merge, so the 'do you want to
' save' message doesn't appear
ActiveDocument.Saved = True

'Close the mail merge main document
ThisDocument.Close True

End Sub

but I will try moving it outside as per your suggestion

SetQueue could be interfering I suppose - although it's not altering the
layout of the document