Mail merge toolbar won't appear automatically

[EJB]

Hi there, I am using Word 2003 and I have noticed that when I open a mail
merge template that is linked correctly to a datasource etc, the toolbar is
not appearing. I realise that I can manually display the toolbar but since
Word recognises that this is a merge template why doesn't it show the toolbar
automatically (as it does in earlier versions)? Your advice is greatly
appreciated!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This is a PITA, isn't it? I have found that if I scrupulously save my mail
merge main document with the Mail Merge toolbar displayed, then *sometimes*
it will be displayed when I open the doc again, but not reliably. The only
failsafe approach is a macro.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?RUpC?=,

I am using Word 2003 and I have noticed that when I open a mail
merge template that is linked correctly to a datasource etc, the toolbar is
not appearing. I realise that I can manually display the toolbar but since
Word recognises that this is a merge template why doesn't it show the toolbar
automatically (as it does in earlier versions)?

Because someone at Microsoft decided this wasn't necessary. I was in the earlier
beta, and I wasn't able to get an answer as to "why", just that it's now "by
design". Doesn't make any sense to me, either...

In the Word 2002/2003 section of my website's mail merge FAQ you'll find a macro
that will do this for you.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[grahambread]

The essential tool to make this work seems to be the 'Mail Merge
Helper' (MMH) dialogue, which doesn't get used by default in Word2003.
In short if you use this tool to create a new or modify an existing MM
document it will subsequently display the MM toolbar when opening the
doc and remove it when closing.

What I have now done is to install the MMH button on my standard
toolbar. You can find it in Tools/Customize/Commands/All Commands/. The
button remains 'active' even if the current doc is not MM. Open a new
blank document and click on the MMH button to get the dialogue to
create a MM document (as we used to in Word 2000). Once you have linked
to your data source the MM toolbar will behave in the 'old' way. This
has worked for me with new docs and with old ones that previously had
not automatically displayed the toolbar in Word2003 but will do once I
reconnect to the data sorce using the MMH dialogue and then save the
doc.

Best wishes
Graham

 

[EJB]

Thanks Graham, this is actually "the road I went down" in finding a suitable
work around to this issue

Thanks again