Mail Merge Problem in Access 97

[Carol]

HI,
Background:
I took over an Access Database from a person that left
the company that produces mail merge letters. The
letters are stored on the co. shared drive. To Merge the
letters, the user would have to select the menu option in
the access database to produce the letter:
For Example
Acknowledgement Letters is an option on the menu executed
by a macro which would locate where the Letters are
stored. User would:
- Click on Acknowledgement Letters/Enter Password or Click
Read only/the Letter pops up.

I made a changes
a) To the mail merge letter while in the Access Database
which is fine.
b) Also, a data source was missing – such I updated the
datasource so the mail merge was able to work.

Problem:

This database is located on my “h” drive at work. My own
personal stuff. I moved the exact same version to the G:
Drive – The Shared Drive. So, the users could access the
database I made a update to .

However, once the database is moved to the shared drive I
can’t get the letters to work properly.
I get this error message :
ACKFORMS.DOC is a mail merge main document. Word cannot
find it’s data source. USRLOG-H.mdb. (This is the name of
the database).
This option works fine on my hard drive but once I move
to the shared drive it no longer execute properly!
Several other letters have the same problem ?

Menu Options that worked correctly ( I didn’t make any
changes ) on my hard drive do not work correctly on the
shared drive. This is the exact same database, I don’t
understand what’s going on and would hope somebody could
point me in the right direction..

Thanks for any information.

Carol

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Some clarification please - is the problem that
a. you believe you have changed the Word document to reflect the new
database location, but Word is just not finding the database, or
b. you are moving the database, then opening the Word document, then seeing
the dialog?

If it is (b) then what you should try (say, with just one document
initially) is
a. before moving the database
- make a copy of your document
- open the document
- note any sort/filter options in the merge
- use the first button in the Mail Merge Helper to change the document
back into a "Normal Word document". This disconnects the document from the
data source. All the merge fields will remain, but you may lose sort/filter
options
b. move the database
c. open the document. You should not see the dialog you are currently
seeing
d. use the mail merge helper to reconnect the document to the (relocated)
data source
e. re-enter any sort/filter options

If it is (a) please let us know.

 

[Caroly]

Thanks for your response. Let me try to clarify..
1) I changed the Word Document from my Access Database.
All the Word letters have been set up on the company
shared drive.
2)I have a database on my personal drive that points to
the shared drive to access the letters.
3)When I move a copy my database to the shared drive the
letters no longer work properly I get the message stated
in previous message. (The reason I wanted to put this copy
on the shared drive and have this as a master copy is my
users users are getting the same mail merge errors on
their database. All of a sudden these errors are popping
up on letters that have worked correctly. Since I thought
I had gotten my version to work - I wanted to put out on
the shared and then copy to the users personal computer to
resolve the errors.)
4) Some letters that were not even changed no longer work
correctly when moved to the shared drive. Why? This is
very puzzling!!
5) Are you saying that I have to follow step (b) each time
a letter is changed and I would always get the dialog
errors once I move the database to a different location?

Thanks again for your help

 

[Peter Jamieson]

5) Are you saying that I have to follow step (b) each time

a letter is changed and I would always get the dialog
errors once I move the database to a different location?

More or less. There are at least two different configuration issues here.

1. How does Access know where the mail merge main document .doc files are?
Access may look in the same folder as the .mdb is in, or the paths to the
letters may be hardcoded. I don't know Access well enough to say, but it is
certainly worth checking what actually happens if there is any possibility
that Access may open a .doc stored on a user's PC rather than the network
copyyou are expecting it to open.

2. How does Word know where the .mdb it is getting its data from is? The
location of the database that is being used to open the word document is
logically independent from the location of the database Word is trying to
open to get its data from. In particular, Word typically uses an "absolute"
path name such as "c:\xyz\mydb.mdb" to find its data source. If it just uses
"mydb.mdb" you need to be sure that Word is actually trying to open the copy
of the .mdb you are expecting it to open.

I think you will probably need to do a few experiments to check exactly
where Word and Access do expect the .docs and .mdbs to be, and that will
probably involve one or both of
a. ensuring that there is only one copy of each component (the .mdbs and
the .docs) that Word or Access could possibly try to open. It may then
become more obvious what does and does not work
b. find and inspect any VBA being used to launch these merges

That's what I'd look at first, anyway.