MAILMERGE ISSUE

[glensdaughter]

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I have MS-Office 2008 for Mac. I want to use Mailmerge in MS-Word to create labels for envelopes. I already have a source document in Excel. When I follow the HELP instructions for MS-Word, I get to step 8 ("In the Mail Merge Manager, under Select Recipients List, click Get List, and then click Open Data Source"), I hit a snag every time: a window comes up saying MS-Word can't open the Data Source document. Well, of course it can't, because the source doc is in Excel. But how do I get around this barrier? Hope someone can help me! Thanks,
Glensdaughter

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Glensdaughter;

The terminology may be a little misleading, but yes, Word does open the
Excel file so it can read the content. It doesn't open it in the manner of
being able to directly view or edit the file, however

To help resolve the problem we need more information:

Exact Office update level,
Exact OS X update level,
Exact content of the error message.

Can you open the file with Excel, itself?

How is the Excel file constructed & what does it contain?

Do the sheet names include any symbols, such as /, \, -, etc.?

If you copy the records in the Excel file, paste to a new workbook & use
that as the data source does it make any difference?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[glensdaughter]

Hi Bob Jones, and thanks for your swift reply which also showed up in my email inbox. I'm so new at this stuff that I tried replying by email first, which didn't work. I now realize I must reply here on the site. So... here's the information you requested:

Exact Office update level: 12.1.3 (080930)

Exact OS X update level: OS X version 10.5.5

Exact content of the error message. "Word was unable to open the data source."

Can you open the file with Excel, itself? Yes. (Note - it's still an ".xls" file; I haven't yet converted it to ".xlsx")

How is the Excel file constructed & what does it contain? It contains contact information only; NO mathematical formula. COLUMNS: 17 with headings such as first/last name, spouse's name, children's / grandchildren's names, address, phone(s), email(s), birthdays, language spoken (E/F/O), family (Y/N + mine or my husband's), former colleague (Y/N + mine or my husband's), group member (Y/N + which one), notes, etc. ROWS: about 200.

Do the sheet names include any symbols, such as /, \, -, etc.? One of the two sheet names in the file includes an ampersand ("&").

If you copy the records in the Excel file, paste to a new workbook & use that as the data source does it make any difference? No, same issue. Note - in the copy, the sheet names had NO symbols ("sheet 1")

Other info: when I had a PC and an older version of MS-Office, I used this Excel sheet as a mailmerge source-document, to do such things as: creating envelope-labels, and creating an annual directory. I want to continue doing so on my iMac, with the MS-Office 2008 for Mac. Hope you can you help me!

Thanks,
Glensdaughter