MailMerge Access query is empty

B

Bill Stanton

I have a Word "Main Document" that has functioned perfectly
for several years taking its "data source" from an Access query.
The query is defined within the mde file of a split database and
obtains the data from the "back-end" mdb file. Both the mde and
mdb files were created in Access 2000 and the Word 2000
MailMerge has performed perfectly.

When attempting to run the MailMerge in Word 2003 the Access
query comes up empty. I tried moving the query definition to the
mdb file where the data resides and re-linking the main document
there, but get the same results.

How do I resolve this one?

Thanks,
Bill
 
B

Bill Stanton

Would someone more familiar with Word 2003 than I am please
have a look at article 301595 and tell me how to remain compatible
between Access 2000 and Word 2003?

If I read the article correctly, I would have to have two different
queries defined in the 2000 mde file, corresponding to the
requirements of Word 2000 and Word 2003. Where the only
difference between the two is the use of "%" for 2003 wildcards
and "*" for the 2000 wildcards.

Thanks,
Bill
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,

Your best bet IMO would be to force mail merge to use ODBC. Activate
"Confirm conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General. After
selecting the mdb or mde file, choose ODBC. In order to see a list of
queries appended to the list of tables, click on "Options" and
activate "Views".
Would someone more familiar with Word 2003 than I am please
have a look at article 301595 and tell me how to remain compatible
between Access 2000 and Word 2003?

If I read the article correctly, I would have to have two different
queries defined in the 2000 mde file, corresponding to the
requirements of Word 2000 and Word 2003. Where the only
difference between the two is the use of "%" for 2003 wildcards
and "*" for the 2000 wildcards.

Thanks,
Bill
Click to expand...

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Hi Cindy,
I was hoping you'd spot my post.

Other than "Confirm conversions on open", the options you described
don't seem to fit Word 2000. It would seem then, that they have to be
exercised on the W2003 system. If that is the case, I'll have to send
your instructions to the end user of that system. Or, did I not adequately
understand your intent.

Thanks,
Bill
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,
Other than "Confirm conversions on open", the options you described
don't seem to fit Word 2000. It would seem then, that they have to be
exercised on the W2003 system. If that is the case, I'll have to send
your instructions to the end user of that system. Or, did I not adequately
understand your intent.
Click to expand...
In order to use ODBC on a 2000 system, activate the "Select method" checkbox
(I think that's how it's called; only checkbox, anyway) in Open Datasource.
From there on, things should be the same.

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Hi Cindy,
Cindy, I don't think we're "tracking" here. In W2k, it is indeed
"select method" that will get one to where one can select either
tables or queries from within a mdb or mde file. And, I've been
doing that with successful merges every since YOU taught that
to me a couple of years ago... hahaha!

Now, in W2003, the Wizard will allow one to navigate to where
one can also select from a list of queries within a given mdb or
mde file. The Wizard presents the option to browse and select
similar but not the same as W2k. Anyway, having followed that
path and successfully selected a query, the merge fails due to
there not being any records selected according to the "criteria"
specified in the query. It is out of that experience that I posted
my first question and subsequently found the discussion on "*"
versus "%" that led to my appended post.

I'm beginning to get the idea that you're trying to tell me to retain
the use of the "*" as the wildcard and turn on the "Confirm
conversions on open" option in W2003 so that the "*" will be
treated as a wildcard. I would simply test that if I had W2003
on my machine, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Am I getting close to the proper understanding?

Regards,
Bill
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,
I'm beginning to get the idea that you're trying to tell me to retain
the use of the "*" as the wildcard and turn on the "Confirm
conversions on open" option in W2003 so that the "*" will be
treated as a wildcard. I would simply test that if I had W2003
on my machine, but unfortunately that is not the case.

Am I getting close to the proper understanding?
Click to expand...
Yes, this is what I was trying to say (but not in so many words; sorry,
I've been playing catch-up on some 8000 unread messages over the last
week). If you use an ODBC connection, it won't matter which version of
Office is running. This is because the ODBC drivers haven't changed how
they work and still understand ANSI-89. OLE DB, the new connection
method, is set up to use ANSI-92 (the different wild cards), so you'll
never get compatibility across versions.

Also, OLE DB is "iffy" for both Access and Excel; you'll get much more
reliable results and stable behavior using ODBC.

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Hi Cindy,
Sounds like you're swamped and I appreciate your taking the
time to answer my questions. Last one: Does enabling "Confirm
conversions on open" in W2003 trigger the use of an ODBC
connection?

Thanks,
Bill
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,
Does enabling "Confirm
conversions on open" in W2003 trigger the use of an ODBC
connection?
Click to expand...
No, it does what "Select method" does in earlier versions:
allows you to choose which connection method you prefer
from a list :)

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
:)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Oops! my earlier post went via "reply" vs. "reply group".
I've repeated it here followed by an update from my
conference with my 2003 end user moments ago.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hi Cindy,

Perfect! I thought my "trigger" idea was a bit of
a stretch.

I notice that when I get the "confirm" prompt in
W2000 that "DDE" is the only option, which doesn't
seem right based on everything you've told me.
Can I infer from that that the DDE drivers also
understand ANSI-89 and hence the use of "*"?

Bill
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cindy,
I just walked my 2003 user through the data source selection wherein
I had him select "DDE for mdb's and mde's" versus "ODBC for mdb's alone",
as the queries are defined within the front-end mde that use "*" as wild
cards, and, choosing ODBC only gives selection options amongst tables
in the back-end.

So, unless you have some warnings about the use of DDE, we're done
with this caper.

I couldn't have solved this one without your help, so I thank you most
appreciatively.

Regards,
Bill Stanton
California USA
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill

1. If you aren't seeing ODBC, perhaps the drivers aren't
installed.

2. I do believe I mentioned one has to click "Options" and
activate "Views" to see queries when choosing ODBC?

3. DDE will work fine, but you have to keep in mind that
this is very old technology, and MS no longer worries all
too much about keeping it working. The further we progress,
the more reliable ODBC is, compared to DDE. As long as your
client is up and running, and happy, I wouldn't try to fix
what isn't broken :) But I urge you to save this exchange
somewhere, so that you can go back and tell him how to use
ODBC when he calls and says Word is telling him it can't
set up a DDE connection :)

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
:)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Hi Cindy,
We did see ODBC but only for mdb's, not mde's.

Do we need to click "Options" -> "View" to see
ODBC for mde's?

I can probably resolve the issue by moving the
query to the back-end mdb file, as that particular
query is fairly static.

Bill
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,
We did see ODBC but only for mdb's, not mde's.
Click to expand...
Ah. It might be that you need to create a DSN specifically
for an *mde. I've never done anything with the run-time
file format, really, so...
I can probably resolve the issue by moving the
query to the back-end mdb file, as that particular
query is fairly static.
Click to expand...
Or that.

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
:)
 
B

Bill Stanton

Hi Cindy,
How do I create a DSN for *mde?
Bill



Cindy M -WordMVP- said:
Hi Bill,

Ah. It might be that you need to create a DSN specifically
for an *mde. I've never done anything with the run-time
file format, really, so...

Or that.

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


This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
:)
Click to expand...
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi Bill,
How do I create a DSN for *mde?
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, I never really use them, so I can't give
you exact steps. But...

Control Panel, Administrative Tools, ODBC Data source
Administrator.

Choose the type of DSN (User or System, usually). Click
Add.

Choose the Access ODBC driver, click Finish. Now click
Configuration and choose the database file.

If this doesn't work, then I recommend asking in an Access
newsgroup how to get an ODBC connection set up to a *.mde
file.

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail
:)
 
B

Bill

Thanks Cindy. You've been a great help and I really
appreciate your time and thought. I'll pursue the DSN
issue and get us to where we're using ODBC with
a mde or I'll move the queries to the backend mdb.
Thanks again,
Bill Stanton
 

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