Mail merge process is printing out extra records

[Mike]

We use Access 2003 for our database, and Word 2003 for running mail merges.

I have an access database that users pull information from for their mail
merge letters. The problem is that when someone starts going through the mail
merge process, and a different user is adding or making changes to the
database records, those records that were being updated are printing out in
the mail merge letters even though they were not selected. Many users make
changes to the database while people use mail merge. So the people doing the
mail merge end up getting extra printouts of records they didn't select to
print out. How would I go about troubleshooting this issue?

Thanks.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I would think that you would have to use a query in access as the means of
selecting the desired records and then use the query as the data source.
Even then you will have to come up with some way of making sure that the
person who is adding data to the table does not include in that data the
information that will cause it to be included in the results of the query.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Mike]

Is it normal that if you're going through the mail merge process, and someone
makes a change to a record in the database, that the updated record will
print out in your mail merge printouts even though you didn't select that
record?

thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

FWIW I can easily replicate this problem here with some simple test data.
What to do about it is a different question...

Word will certainly eventually see new records that conform to any filter
you have defined. e. g.
a. in Word, I select all records in table t where f='paper'
b. in Access, I add a record and set f to 'paper'
c. in Word, I use the arrow keys in the mail merge toolbar to navigate to
the last record
d. the new record appears.
e. in the new record, I change 'paper' to 'scissors'
f. in Word, I navigate away from the record that now contains scissors,
then back again. Word still sees the record despite the fact that it now
displays field f as 'scissors'
g. FWIW if you open the Mail Merge Recipients dialog box you also see this
record. If you click Refresh, it disappears.

I do not know whether this behaviour is a direct result of the way the OLEDB
provider works, or a result of the way that Word configures or uses the
provider, or what. It is possible to change some of the properties Word uses
when it connects to a Jet database by specifying properties in a .odc (or
maybe .udl) file, but (for example) changing the open mode to Read doesn't
do the trick - I suspect the only thing that might would be to change the
type of cursor used, and I do not know if it is possible to specify that in
a connection string: I don't think so.

However, what does seem to work, at least in the simple test scenario I have
here, is to use an ODBC connection instead of an OLEDB one (check Word
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversions at open", go through the
connection process again, and select the ODBC option when it is offered).
However,
a. Word won't see Unicode format data via an ODBC connection
b. the data in some field types (e.g. date time and yesno fields) is
returned in a different format when you use ODBC.

Wish it was simpler...

Peter Jamieson