Merge Fields and Word 2007

[Cliff Squire]

Hi,

In Word 2003 and previous versions when a mail merged document was saved and
reopened any fields that had been changed in the source document were
updated. Now with Word 2007 it seems that when a mail merge document is
saved, all fields are replaced by the values from the source document and
the fields themselves are removed. Is there a way to bring back the
behaviour of previous versions of Word?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

I don't believe that the way you think that Word 2003 worked is the way that
Word has ever worked. To have the data displayed in a mail merge main
document display what is in the data source, it is necessary to execute, or
at least preview the results of the merge. Saving the main document does
not convert the fields to ordinary text. Perhaps you are dealing with a
document that was produced by executing the merge to a new document, rather
that with the mail merge main document itself.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Cliff Squire]

Hi Doug,

I don't use mail merge myself so my description of the problem we are having
might have been a bit off. Yes the problem is with documents that are
created after execution of the merge. I hope that makes more sense.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

When the merge is executed to a new document, that document does not contain
any links to the data source. It never has. The only way to get a document
that contains data that may have been revised in the data source is to
re-execute the merge.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Cliff Squire]

Doug, thanks for your help but it looks like I sorted this one out myself.

I have just asked someone to run me through the steps they take on Word XP
and then Word 2007. It looks like we should be saving the document at the
"Preview" stage and not going all the way to "Finish & Merge". Preview looks
like the Word 2007 equivalent of "View Merged Data" in Word XP.