Maintaining mail merge links to data source when relocating

[Gase]

I have constructed a mail merge document in Office 2000 that I need to move to other computers. However, if I zip or it, email it oer transfer it by CDRom, the data source link is lost and the new user will need to establish this link again. I was wondering if there was a way in which the excel and word documents could be moved without breaking the link.

Thank you

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As far as I know, the only way to do this is to use a VBA AutoOpen macro to
get the path of the folder containing the .doc then use OpenDataSource with
that path + the .xls name (assuming the .doc and .xls are copied intot the
same folder) to open the data source.

That assumes that
a. you disconnect the mail merge main document from its data source
/before/ you package and send it. You will lose any sort/filter options
b. the recipient is not prevented from running macros.

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

I have constructed a mail merge document in Office 2000 that I need to

move to other computers. However, if I zip or it, email it oer transfer it
by CDRom, the data source link is lost and the new user will need to
establish this link again. I was wondering if there was a way in which the
excel and word documents could be moved without breaking the link.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?R2FzZQ==?=,

I have constructed a mail merge document in Office 2000 that I need to move to other

computers. However, if I zip or it, email it oer transfer it by CDRom, the data source
link is lost and the new user will need to establish this link again. I was wondering if
there was a way in which the excel and word documents could be moved without breaking the
link.If they're in the same folder, and the user has exactly this folder construction on his
machine, it MIGHT work. But a macro solution would probably be more reliable. This would
entail
- saving the main merge document with NO link to the data source
- the user places both doc and data source in the same folder
- the AutoOpen macro in the document
- checks the folder location of the document
- links up to the data source in the same folder

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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