Mail merge document not compatible with Windows?

[Aaron Bratcher]

I prepared a document on the Mac using the most recent version of Word
available. I set it up to do a mail merge using an excel file as the
data source.

Tried to open it up on OfficeXP and it choked saying it needs a
translator.

Is there a fix to this?

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

The file format has been the same since Word 97, it doesn't need a
translator. If you emailed the doc to the windows computer, post back, that
may be the source of the problem.

WinWord is also missing a quicktime converter, if you have certain types of
images, etc in the doc--if you think that might be the case, run Office
Update on the Windows computer.

Side note: are you saying you set up the mail merge in the Word doc on the
Mac, but want to do the actual merge on a different computer? I didn't
realize that was possible.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Aaron,

I don't think the Mail Merge part of the document is what's causing the
request for a translator. The error message should give a hint as to what
translator is needed - probably a graphic format or something. Get out the
Office for Windows install CD and do a custom install to get the translators
installed.

As far as the mail merge goes, you can easily transfer the mail merge
document to windows and run the merge if you do the following things:

On the mac, start with an empty folder.
Put the data source (in your case XLS) file into the folder before you make
the merge
Put the word document (or make a new one and save it with the name you want
to use) into the same folder at the same directory level.
Then use the data merge manager to make the word document into a mail merge
document.
Use stuffit to compress the folder. Then when it's opened in Windows
everything will work fine.

-Jim

Quoting from "Aaron Bratcher"

I prepared a document on the Mac using the most recent version of Word
available. I set it up to do a mail merge using an excel file as the
data source.

Tried to open it up on OfficeXP and it choked saying it needs a
translator.

Is there a fix to this?

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Aaron Bratcher]

Hi Aaron,

I don't think the Mail Merge part of the document is what's causing the
request for a translator. The error message should give a hint as to what
translator is needed - probably a graphic format or something. Get out the
Office for Windows install CD and do a custom install to get the translators
installed.

What makes it really odd is that the file was created on Windows. It was
saved with a mail merge ready to go. I just needed to change the XLS
source and wanted to do it from my Mac.

To create this error all I have to do is open it with Word on Mac,
defined it as a merge letter using the data merge manager and create
form letters (apparently Word doesn't recognize it as a merge letter),
click on the get data button and open the XLS data source, and save.

Re-opening it on windows gives this error: "This file needs to be opened
by the Microsoft Excel Worksheet text converter, which may pose a
security risk if the file you are opening is a malicious file."

The word and excel documents live on a server. No e-mail exchange was
done. Simply opening it with one machine vs. another.

Looking at it now, it appears to be something with the excel file. Does
word alter the excel file when I choose it as a data source? If so, why
does Office XP have a hard time with it? (Opening the XLS in excel on
the windows machine poses no problems after viewing the error message)

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

The message generated by Windows concerning the Excel file is to caution
windows users that they need to stop and think for a moment about the
Excel file that they are connecting to. The idea is to alert the user
that there is a possibility of mischief if the Excel workbook has some
nasty macro virus in it and hopefully they will not connect to a
workbook they are not sure of.

Yea, I know. Not likely to stop anyone, but still it's a caution flag.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>

 

[Aaron Bratcher]

Hi,

The message generated by Windows concerning the Excel file is to caution
windows users that they need to stop and think for a moment about the
Excel file that they are connecting to. The idea is to alert the user
that there is a possibility of mischief if the Excel workbook has some
nasty macro virus in it and hopefully they will not connect to a
workbook they are not sure of.

Yea, I know. Not likely to stop anyone, but still it's a caution flag.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>

But if you try to load a text converter, then you get garbage. The
people I am trying to pass this on to already have all the text
converters loaded so it tries to convert it automatically giving them
garbage.

In essence, I cannot create the mail merge document on my Mac and then
pass it on to the Windows users it is intended for. They try to use it,
they get garbage.

-- Aaron Bratcher