Mail Merge created in word 97 doesn't work in 2003

[Bill Brown]

The document was set uo using an access query that contains functions, iif()
to be specific.

When I try to reconnect the data source the query does not appear in the
list. The only queries that do appear are only those that contain straight
fields.

The query I'm using has 2 different name fields, name1 and name2. I'm using
the IIf function to determine if name2 is not blank use it. name:
iif(nz(name2)="",name1,name2)

in word 97 all the queries are visible so I had to set it up in that. When I
open the document in 2003 and click yes on the sql prompt I can still run the
merge, but I cannot use the office links in access to do the merge.

Any Ideas?

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Bill,

The document was set to use an access query that contains functions, iif()
to be specific.

When I try to reconnect the data source the query does not appear in the
list. The only queries that do appear are only those that contain straight
fields.

The issue is that, since Word 2002, by default Word uses a different technology
to connect to the data source. Previously, DDE was the default; now it's OLE DB.

DDE actually requires the that data bank application (Access or excel) runs and
opens the interface to the data. Because of this, queries containing such
functions are able to execute and deliver the calculated result.

ODBC and OLE DB don't do this - they access the data directly from the database
without the UI running. This has its advantages: Access doesn't have to be
installed on the machine and generally, things are faster. But there is the
drawback you're noticing.

In order to continue using a DDE connection you need to activate "Confirm
conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General. You can then choose DDE from a
list of possible connection methods and get the same choices as in Word 97.


However, you need to be aware that DDE is no longer offically supported and,
increasingly, does not work on many installations. If that turns out to be the
case for you, the only alternative is to change the query type to a MakeTable
the ensure that this will be executed whenever the data in the underlying tables
is changed.

The query I'm using has 2 different name fields, name1 and name2. I'm using
the IIf function to determine if name2 is not blank use it. name:
iif(nz(name2)="",name1,name2)

in word 97 all the queries are visible so I had to set it up in that. When I
open the document in 2003 and click yes on the sql prompt I can still run the
merge, but I cannot use the office links in access to do the merge.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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