Mailmerge and Access

[Steve P.]

Hello, I am running WinXP SP2 and recently upgraded from Office XP to 2003. I
have installed current Office and OS service packs. I have noticed a problem
using mailmerge and cannot find a fix. I open a new Word doc. and start
mailmerge, when I select my document and the prompt asks 'Select Recipients',
I browse to the xls file with that data and it appears that Word is
attempting to connect to an Access db. I am presented with a login / password
dialog box (which if I cancel and after a few error boxes will get me to
mailmerge) I've never ever used Access on this machine. I have tried this on
another machine and the mailmerge works as expected (no errors)
Any idea why I am being prompted for this Access db?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Word uses the "Access" Jet OLEDB provider to connect to various different
types of data source, including Excel. So when things go wrong, you might
see a dialog that looks like an "Access" dialog. (I don't know exactly what
you are seeing so it's impossible to say). In particular, you might be
seeing a DATALINK dialog (which prbably has several tabs across the top, the
first of which lets you select an OLEDB provider).

It's surprising that there is a change of this kind between Office XP and
2003, but I would consider
a. changing the connection method back to the old DDE method (check Word
Tools|Options|General|Confirm conversions at open, reconnect, and choose the
DDE option when offered). I think you may have to do that if the Excel
document is password-protected.
b. looking at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885832/
That'sjust a guess - I have never seen the problem this KB article relates
to, but it looks in roughly the right area to me.
c. if you aren't getting this problem with other Excel sheets, either try
to work out what is different about it (e.g. does it run any macros when it
opens?) or consider rebuilding your sheet from scratch if that is feasible,
on the grounds that it may have been corrupted in some way.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Steve P.]

Thanks Peter! The first suggestion worked like a charm. Mail Merge flows
smoothly no errors. Regards, Steve