Mail Merge Using Business Contact Manager Contacts

[P Fruin]

Trying to do a mail merge with BusinessContact Manager contacts. In Word, I
clicked the Start Mail Merge button, then the Select Recipients button, then
chose Select from Outlook Contacts. Outlook IS open but I then get a dialogue
box stating “Unable to obtain list of tables from the data source.â€! Any
suggestion on how to correct this?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Typically when working with /Outlook/ contacts it is more reliable and more
flexible to initiate the merge from Outlook - i.e. go into Outlook, select
some contacts, then open Outlook Tools|Mail merge..., study the options, and
go for it.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, if you try to start from the contacts
lists in Business Contact Manager Contacts, there is no similar facility,
and as far as I can tell, it is not possible to add one.

If you prefer to do it the other way,
a. be aware that the field names of Outlook contact fields differ depending

Here's a resolution which has worked for me. I HOPE it helps in your
particular case.

Two steps:

1) Go to Tools / Email Accounts
a. Select "View or change existing directories or address
books", then Next.
b. There SHOULD be an "Outlook Address Book" type MAPI
directory there--but it's most likely missing.
If it's missing, click Add / Additional Address
Books / Outlook Address Book
c. Close and re-open Outlook.

2) In Outlook, right-click on the main Contact folder and go to the
"Outlook Address Book" tab. It's likely the checkbox is de-selected.
Select the checkbox, click Apply, and OK. *Do this for EACH Contact
sub-folder is they exist.

That's it. This has consistently resolved the "Unable to obtain list
of tables from the data source" error.