mail merge toolbar not visible

[kiran]

I have created a mail merge doc on Word XP on win XP,
copied the file onto a Word2000 with win 98, I am able to
open the doc, however, I don't get the Mail Merge toolbar.
Plz. help me ASAP.
I tried the view-toolbars, customizing, nothing seems to
work.
Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.
regards
Kiran.

 

[Rick]

I won't speak for Kiran, but I am having the exact same
problem and, to answer your questions, 1.the link to the
data source is still valid, 2.if you link to the data
source again by going through the Merge wizard you get
the toolbar, and 3.yes, you get the toolbar if you create
a new merge doc (on the win 98 machine w/Office 2k). I
opened a formal support case with Microsoft yesterday on
the issue and will report back to this thread with any
updates. My guess is that there are some compatability
issues with w98 or office 2k when the merge doc is
originally created in XP/Office 2002 environment.
-Rick

 

[Rick]

Cindy,
You appear to be correct. Microsoft support confirmed
today that OLE is not compatible with earlier (DDE)
versions of Office. Their recommendation is to create or
re-create the document in the earlier version of Word.
If you know of any way to create a merge doc in Word 2002
by using DDE - so that it is compatible with earlier
versions, I'm all ears
-Rick