Mail Merge DDE Link Word 2007 Bug?

[hernandez]

The problem I have had with Word 2007 and mail merging using the DDE method
of connection is that I have to tick the 'show all' option in the Confirm
Data Source diaglogue box and then untick it before clicking on DDE. If I
don't do this then it comes up with an error saying it couldn't re-establish
a link using DDE. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has had this
problem too.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Although I have seen the problem you mention, it wasn't completely clear-cut
to me that clicking the "show all" option on and off was what actually fixed
it here.

Generally speaking Word 2007 seems to have a lot more difficulty connecting
to Excel in general. With DDE, Word used to connect to a sheet that was
already open without problems. Now, it tells you the sheet is locked and
goes through the Notify/Open as read only dialog. It also seems to think
that the sheet is open after you have closed it, and sometimes new sheets do
not appear immediately in the list in Select Data Source, which suggests
that something (could be Excel or something in Windows - I'm using Vista
here) is taking its time to close the file.

Incidentally, I would guess you are using .xls format. If you try to connect
to .xlsx using DDE, you do not even see the Excel DDE option until you check
that box.

 

[hernandez]

Yes, my data source was .xls. I haven't had the notify/read only message.
We're not using Vista yet. I use DDE to avoid formatting issues, and when I
was having problems using the other connection methods, someone in the office
suggested I select Show All. When there were no other suitable options i
chose DDE and it worked.