merge did work and now does not

[Mark D]

I was using a rather large excel file as my database to merge a number of
different word documents into emails. it was working fine and then one day it
just didn't work. it kept on taking me to the internet connection wizard
which i was told meant that it was trying to start outlook to use as its
email client default. i uninstalled outlook and the merge documents are still
not working. when i click merge to electronic email it just sits there and
does not cycle through the data fields i am trying to merge to. obviously
nothing shows up in my sent box in my email, I am using a work email which is
a novell groupwise client. Please Help!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

In essence,
a. Word wants to use a particular interface called MAPI to send merged
emails
b. each mail client (such as Outlook, the Groupwise Email client, Eudora
and so on) implements its own MAPI interface. Some e-mail clients do not
have a MAPI interface and cannot be used with Word merge to e-mail; others
implement a MAPI interface that works, but only partly.
c. because MAPI was origginally designed so that there was /one/ MAPI
provider on a system, things can get complicated if you actually have two
e-mail clients on your system, particulalry if one of them has been updated
as a result of (say) a software update being installed on your system.

I do not have Groupwise here and do not know what MAPI facilities it has,
but if I were in your situation I would
a. consider whether you were /actually/ using Outlook to do your merges to
e-mail (you said you had it on your system and now you have removed it:
since you do not typically have to do anything in Outlook to perform a merge
to e-mail, maybe your system was not using Groupwise at all to do these
merges (for example, if you never saw your merged emails in a Groupwise
outbox or sent items folder, the chances are that they could have been going
via Outlook. If so, then maybe
- something changed in your system or network that prevented that from
happening
- nothing will work until that change is unmade.
b. if Word was definitely using Groupwise to do its merges, then verify
that Groupwise is the default e-mail client (if you are using IE, check
Tools|Internet Options|Programs. If that's OK, consider checking with your
support people to find out what MAPI facilities Groupwise has, and assuming
they exist, either asking them to switch them off and on again, or reinstall
the Groupwise client. Or do it yourself, depending on what you are allowed
to do in your organisation.

Peter Jamieson