mail merge and outlook, wants me to select data source

[Suz]

When I select Outlooks Contacts, screen jumps to select data source instead
of showing the names, Why.

 

[Doug Robbins]

You will have more control and choices if you initiate the mailmerge from
Outlook.

--
Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
interested. Questions sent directly to me will only be answered on a paid
consulting basis.

Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Suz]

I tried Outlook, it say's a required file Schdmapi.dll could not be
loaded-reinstall word......? I had to uninstall xp 2 and reinstall could that
be causing problems ?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Schdmapi.dll is a required file with Word 2003 if you wish to connect to
Outlook data from the mail merge toolbar command 'MailMerge Use Address
Book'. Problem is that this file does not appear to be included with Office
2003, because Office 2003 uses a different default means of connection to
its data. If you have an older version of Office (Office 2000) kicking
around, you could copy this file from the install disc to the
Windows\System32 folder and the error message will go away. The error should
not occur if you start the merge from within Outlook - see
http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suz]

That is where I am getting that error, through Outlook 2003.

 

[Brossyg]

In fact, I have the same problem...Word Mail Merge promps for Data Links when
I try to point to an Outlook Address book for as mailmerge.

I have two computers, Dell installed Office 2003 (Mail Merge works fine
initialed from Word with Outlok Address Book) and another computer which is
an upgrade to Office 2003, which doesn't work (asks for Data Link
properties). Niether computer has a "schdmapi.dll" file.

What should I do to fix it?

 

[Graham Mayor]

I don't think this is the same problem - yours would appear to be that you
have confirm conversion at open checked in tools > options > general.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Graham Mayor]

If you don't have access to the dll, contact me via my web site.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suz]

I pulled the schdmapi.dll off of Office 2000 That I had. Put it in the
System32 folder, was not sure if it belonged in a specific folder or not ?
But it did fix the mail merge from Outlook 2003 to Word 2003. I still can not
use Word 2003 mail merge from which would be my preference. As the previous
writer stated in word 2003 once you tell mail merge to use outlook as your
soure, Then a data source screen pops up. It's a box with 4 tabs on it, The
first being the provider from which it defalts to micro jet 4 , and then
wants you to fill in the data source, so what is it looking for to continue
to connect to Word 2003. What is this data source ? It defaults to assess
files. If I tell it .pst , where my file is kept in outlook. Then it tells me
it cannot recognise it. Engine failure, So I guess I do not know what the
name of the data source is that it wants ? or I do not have some settings
right. Gee, I used to really like this program. Thankyou very much for the
..dll idea, I was able to create my labels, but am I able to get my word 2003
mail merge working ?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Can you e-mail a screen shot of the pop-up screen to my web site link so I
can see what you are talking about?
I don't know why you would want to merge Outlook data from Word, when
Outlook provides acces not only to all the fields but allows you to select
which records you want to merge.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suz]

I am sorry Mr. Mayor I do not know how to e-mail you a screen shot of the pop
up screen. I can only tell you the steps I take to get where I am stopped. In
Word 2003, I go to Mail merge, select recipients, select outlook contacts, my
folders come up, I choose Business contacts: Then instead of continuing and
letting me choose who I want to make labels for, up pops this Data Link
Properties Box, and it is asking for a data base name, under the conection
tab. After already telling it to use Outlook Contacts, why would it ask me
for the database name. ? I am confused, boy this used to be more simple and I
loved this feature in word. Besides when I put in the file name of my
outlooks .pst it will not take it.

 

[Graham Mayor]

With the warning message on screen. Press ALT+PRTSCR
That will copy the message to the clipboard.
Paste that message into an empty Word document and send that to me.
If you have tools > options > general > confirm conversion at open checked,
you should get a dialog box headed 'Confirm data source'. That data source
required is 'Outlook Address Book via converter (*.olk)'
If you select that option and schdmapi.dll is not present, you will get an
error message.
If you open Outlook to the business contacts page and from the tools menu
select mail merge, you should be able to merge without this limitation - see
http://www.gmayor.com/mailmerge_from_outlook.htm
If neither works, then frankly I am baffled, but it would be worth exploring
this further in the Outlook newsgroup and to this end I have cross posted
the message to the Outlook group.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Peter Jamieson]

This is unlikely to help as it is background explanation rather than a
suggested fix, but...

When you use this option, Word is using a very complicated mechanism to
access your Outlook data. Word tries to connect using a thing called the Jet
OLEDB provider. In turn , that needs to use a thing called an Outlook (or
Exchange) IISAM which uses a thing called MAPI to get data out of Outlook.
In order to do that, the IISAM creates a new Jet (i.e. Access) database,
typically in your Temp directory. Usually Jet databases have extension
".mdb" but in this case I think they are called ".dat" - certainly something
other than .mdb.

The trouble is that all that complication means that the process can break
down for all sorts of reasons, e.g.
a. the OLEDB provider is not present (unlikely if you have a full version
of Office) or is the wrong version
b. the IISAM is not present (unlikely if you have done a full install of
Office)
c. there is something wrong with the MAPI configuration
d. there is some problem accessing your Temp directory

....and so on...

Depending on what is causing this system to fail, you may see different
things. In this case, it sounds as if Word is failing to connect via OLEDB
and is popping up the OLEDB provider set-up dialog box. At this point, my
experience suggests that nothing you enter into those dialogs is likely to
help you connect.

My suggestions are:
a. get used to initiating from Outlook. If you have managed to make that
work, you are probably better off than the people who cannot make either
method work.
b. check that nothing is preventing Word from creating files in your temp
folder (it is unlikely that there is a problem there unless you are working
in a network environment, particularly a Terminal Server environment.
c. consider finding, downloading and installing the latest version of the
MDAC (data access software) and Jet from the microsoft web site.
Unfortunately, that is not quite as easy as it used to be either.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Suz]

Mr. Mayor, I tried sending you the screen through your web site, but do not
believe you received it. Could you please give me your e-mail
address....Thankx Suz

 

[Graham Mayor]

I got the e-mail and have replied to you. Unfortunately it doesn't cast much
more light on the subject as I have never previously seen this screen. I was
rather hoping that Peter's contribution may have moved the debate forwards.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suz]

Well Mr. Mayor, it seems I had a bad file. On the Outlook Icon, Right
Click, Choose Properties, Up pops a Mail Setup Screen. There is a Data
Files Tab. It appears I had 3 data files listed(.pst) Two were bad. Got
rid of those so there was only one left. With to many files listed in this
Data Files Tab, I don't think Word(2003) knew where to go. That was why
the other screen that you had never seen before came up. It was looking for
the right answer. Mail merge out of Word(2003) works like a champ now.
Thankyou for your efforts. I have learned a lot of new things, I did not
realize that I could mail merge from so many different programs. I hope this
solution works for some of the others on this board. Happy Hoildays to All.

 

[Graham Mayor]

That's a relief

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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