Mail merge problem when filtering data from Excel data source

[Dave F]

A customer is using an Excel 2000 workbook with approximately 5600 records,
to perform mail merges to letters and labels in Word 2000.

The customer is attempting to filter the data using the merge helper and
create a merge based on a specific city and state. When the merge is
initiated, the following error message appears;

“Word could not merge the main document with the data source because the
data records were empty or no data records matched your query options.â€

I have reviewed the Excel workbook data and cannot see a problem with the
fields or records that would prevent the merge. In addition, we have
completely uninstalled and reinstalled Office 2000 believing that there was
the possibility Word was not extracting the data correctly from Excel.

If anyone has any suggestions or a resolution, I would appreciate the input.

 

[David Gerstman]

Have you made sure that the spreadsheet is in the directory where you are
telling Word to look? While I'm no expert on mail merges, when I've had the
problem it's usually been a misplaced data source.

 

[Dave F]

David,

Thanks for your response. The merge was new, so we did not have to
reestablishing a broken connection. In addition, we copied the database from
its network location to the hard drive and created another merge, but the
same error occurred.

 

[joust in jest]

In addition to posting your mail merge problem in Office Miscellaneous
newsgroup (where generalists hang out), you might try posting your mail
merge problem where the mail merge gurus hang out:

microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields

 

[Dave F]

Been there, done that and got the tee shirt.

In addition to posting your mail merge problem in Office Miscellaneous
newsgroup (where generalists hang out), you might try posting your mail
merge problem where the mail merge gurus hang out:

microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields

--
steve

(e-mail address removed)
remove _thenut_ to reach me

 

[Beth Melton]

What are you using as your data source? There should be a named range
called "_AutoFilter" in the Excel file.

Also, when you get this to work you'll find Word will still attempt to
merge the hidden records in the Excel sheet. You need to use the Word
Query options and use the "Is not blank" criteria a field in your
workbook that will not be blank for any record.
--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
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MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/