mail merge and document file

[Courtney]

I am having issues with the mail merge pulling in the wrong excel data. In
the mail merge menu I browse for and select a 2009 file. When the mail merge
automatically opens the file in excel it opens the correct file, 2009.
However when it gets to the step of selecting a named or cell range I select
I am getting a range for the 2008 file and not the 2009 file.

Does anyone have any ideas why it is pulling the 2008 file and not the 2009
file?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Which version of Word/Excel?

Are the 2008 and 2009 sheets definitely different files and not two
worksheets in the same workbook?

With your mailmerge main document open, can you go into Word VBA, open the
Immediate panel if it is not displayed (e.g. press ctrl-G in the VBA editor)
and type the following commands, and copy/paste the output in a message in
this conversation:

print activedocument.mailmerge.datasource.name
print activedocument.mailmerge.datasource.connectstring
print activedocument.mailmerge.datasource.querystring

 

[Courtney]

Peter, Yes the 2008 and 2009 sheets are definitely different files. I went
into the Word VBA and copy/paste the info given. It did not work. I should
have mentioned earlier I am working with Office Word 2003.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

It did not work.

OK, if you can describe what happened, that might be useful. But if not,
there's another thing we can try...

Open your mail merge main document and use File->Save As to save the file in
HTML format. Then open the .htm file using e.g. Notepad and look for a chunk
of text that starts with this (it should be fairly near the top of the
file):

<w:MailMergeMainDocType>

Then copy/paste, say, the next 20 lines into a message in this conversation.

 

[Courtney]

I tried the file save as method. However, I do not get an option to save it
as an HTML format.

Here is what happened.
First I opened the Word document.
Then I clicked on Tools, Letters & Mailings, Mail Merge.
Then the mail merge menu on the right side of the screen comes up and at the
bottom I click on Next: Starting Document
Then I click on Next: Select Recipients
Then I click on Browse and select my 2009 file. Then word opens the excel
document with the 2009 data.
Then the Confirm Data Source box pops up and I click on the MS Excel
Worksheet via DDE (*.xls)
Then in the Microsoft Excel Named or Cell Range box I click on the
Print_Area option then click ok. Prior to opening anything in my excel file
I have set the print area with no hidden rows or columns.
Then the Mail Merge Recipients box pops up and this is where I stop because
I can see it contains the wrong data, the data from the 2008 file.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

When you connect via DDE, you only get to see data on the first worksheet in
the workbook (it does not matter what range name, cf. Print_Area, you
choose).

Could that be the problem?

 

[Courtney]

Except there is only one worksheet in the file.

When you connect via DDE, you only get to see data on the first worksheet in
the workbook (it does not matter what range name, cf. Print_Area, you
choose).

Could that be the problem?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

From the View menu in Word, select Toolbars and then check the Mail Merge
item.

Then, with your mail merge main document open, click on the Main document
setup button on the toolbar (the one with the page and envelope icon) and
then select Normal Word document in the Main Document Type dialog that will
appear. Save the document, close it and then re-open it and via the Main
document setup button, set the document type to the one that you are wanting
to create. Then click on the next button on the toolbar to select the data
source and see if this then connects to the correct data source.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Peter Jamieson]

To save as HTML you should be able to select "Web Page (*.htm, *.html)" in
the "Save as type" dropdown in the Save As dialog box.

 

[Courtney]

Sorry, but that did not work.

From the View menu in Word, select Toolbars and then check the Mail Merge
item.

Then, with your mail merge main document open, click on the Main document
setup button on the toolbar (the one with the page and envelope icon) and
then select Normal Word document in the Main Document Type dialog that will
appear. Save the document, close it and then re-open it and via the Main
document setup button, set the document type to the one that you are wanting
to create. Then click on the next button on the toolbar to select the data
source and see if this then connects to the correct data source.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Courtney]

Sorry, this did not work either.

To save as HTML you should be able to select "Web Page (*.htm, *.html)" in
the "Save as type" dropdown in the Save As dialog box.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

It's helpful if you can provide more information than "that didn't work." We
are not looking over your shoulder!

e.g. what "save as type" file types do you see in this dialog box? Or maybe
you do not even see that dropdown?

 

[Courtney]

The "save as type" file options I was given are as follows:
Word Document
XML Document
Single File Webpage
Web Page, Filtered
Document Template
Rich Text Format
Plain Text
Word 2007 Document
Word 2007 Macro-Enabled Document
Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95-RTF
Works 6.0 & 7.0

I clicked on the Web Page option since that was closest to what you
described. After going trough the steps you described I went through the
mail merge process like previously listed and the result did not change.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, that's surprising as I have a Web Page option here.

But if you can save using Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95-RTF format, then open /that
file in Notepad and look for a chunk of text that starts with

{\*\mmodso{\mmodsosrc

and post (say) the two lines of text that follow that here, that may help.

A couple of other things you could look at:
a. close all copies of Word and Excel. Then open Windows Task Manager (e.g.
Start->Run, type "taskmgr" without the quotes, and have a look in the list
of Procceses. Do you see EXCEL.EXE in the list? If so, consider ending the
process (but onlyif you feel comfortable doing that).
b. create a completely new Word mail merge document and try connecting it
to the data source that you want. Does it behave the same way? (Doug may
already have suggested that one).

 

[Courtney]

Ok. I saved the Word using Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95-RTF format, then opened
that file in Notepad. And I am still looking for the chunk of text you
described.

Also, I completely closed out of Excel and Word, then opened Windows Task
Manager. However, I did not see Start - Run. What I saw was the following
tabs: Applications, Processes, Performance, and Networking. Then on the
tollbar there were the following titles: File, Options, View, Help. Not
seeing a start option I looked under the Processes tab and did not see
anything with EXCEL.EXE. However once I open Excel and Word back up then I
see an option for EXCEL.EXE.

Then I created a new Word mail merge document from scratch. However, when I
try connecting it to the data source I want, the excel 2009 Feb file, it
comes up with the same result, the 2008 data. The file I have been trying to
merge is a Word Feb 2009 file and an Excel Feb 2009 file, but when I take my
May 2009 Word file and merge it with the May 2009 Excel file I have no issues
like I do with the Feb 2009 file. And the process I used is the same process
described earlier.

 

[Courtney]

I have created a new excel spreadsheet for the 2009 data from scratch and now
I do not have any issues with the mail merge. Now it works.