Mail Merge & Filemaker

[cspm]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC

I am using Word 2004 to do a mail merge. When I try to import external data from Filemaker Pro 8.5, none of the file are available (they are ALL greyed out). I tried to search on the internet for a solution and the only one I found was exporting FMP to Excel then into Word. I can understand that. My question is "is there a specific version of WORD and of FILEMAKER that arew compatible and works?" and "What's the point of have FILEMAKER as an option if it does not work?" I am really curious if anyone has answers to thiese questions. Thanks!

 

[CyberTaz]

The question may be what version format the FMP file is in. It worked fine
until FM made some changes in 7.0 that gummed up the works.

Despite using the 8.5 version of the program might the file itself be
..fp7?... which has never been usable as a data source for Word or Excel, on
either Windows or Mac. The problem lies with FM, not Office. This
incompatibility is fully acknowledged along with alternatives export formats
on the FM site. Converting the file to an FM 8.x format may also be an
option but since Office 2004 predates that version I'm not sure - perhaps
you're discovering that to not be the case. You may have to output the data
as per the options suggested by FM.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[cspm]

Bob,

Thank you for your comments on this.

I have tried this same thing on one of my other Macs with Office 2008 installed with success.

In other words, if I used Word 2008 to do the mail merge (instead of Word 2004), I am able to successfully import the data from Filemaker Pro 8.5 (exactly the same file and data, I used to attempt the process in with Word 2004).{Everthings same except using 2008 instead of 2004).

Doesn't that mean that the .fp7 actually DOES work? and nothing is wrong or problematic with FMP? And is in fact an MS Office problem?

Which again lead to the question ... if 2004 version of Word does NOT work with Filemaker, why offer it as an option at all? Under what circumstances IN Word 2004 would it have worked? (version "X" of Word with version "Y" of FMP?)

Carmelo

 

[cspm]

Bob,

I forgot to mention that the Mac with Office 2008 has Office 2004 in it as well. All thing the same, the procedure work in Word 2008 and NOT in Word 2004.

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Bob,

Thank you for your comments on this.

I have tried this same thing on one of my other Macs with Office 2008
installed with success.

In other words, if I used Word 2008 to do the mail merge (instead of Word
2004), I am able to successfully import the data from Filemaker Pro 8.5
(exactly the same file and data, I used to attempt the process in with Word
2004).{Everthings same except using 2008 instead of 2004).

Doesn't that mean that the .fp7 actually DOES work? and nothing is wrong or
problematic with FMP? And is in fact an MS Office problem?

Which again lead to the question ... if 2004 version of Word does NOT work
with Filemaker, why offer it as an option at all? Under what circumstances IN
Word 2004 would it have worked? (version "X" of Word with version "Y" of FMP?)

Carmelo

FMP 8 was announced after Office 2004. Office 2008 was able to support the
new FMP8 file format. Earlier versions of Office work with earlier versions
of FM. I don't think it is reasonable to expect earler versions of Office to
be able to support file formats that were not announced when Office was
released.

 

[cspm]

I accept your comment " I don't think it is reasonable to expect earler versions of Office to be able to support file formats that were not announced when Office was released."

I am not mean to be argumentative. Actually ALL I wanted to know is what version of Filemaker Pro actually works with Word 2004 ... If they offer the option in the Merger to E-mail to import Filemaker files then SURELY there should be a version it works with. THAT is the info I am after! If there isn't any, then WHY offer that option at all?

 

[CyberTaz]

FileMaker versions *prior* to 7 have no problem being used by Office 2004 -
those versions were in play before 2004 was introduced. FM then came out
with v.7 which broke the mechanism & they have never done anything to fix
it. Apparently that incompatibility continues with the FMP 8 format & FM
doesn't care whether their databases can be used by Office 2004 & earlier.

From the MS point of view they aren't about to overhaul a prior version of
their software in order to accommodate an incompatibility caused by another
developer - no software company would. Nor [editorially speaking] should
they be expected to.

Again, the direct answer to your question is FM formats earlier than the
..fp7 are compatible with Office 2004.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac