Merging with Excel: Need Basic Advice on DDE, filters, etc.

[Brian Siano]

In previous versions of Word, I was able to set up mail merges very easily. I could set the document to merge with a particular Excel spreadsheet, with specific filters, and all I'd have to do was have it merge away.

But with Word 2002, merging is extremely frustrating. First of all, every time I open the Word merge file, I have to re-link to the Excel spreadsheet. Then, I have to re-set all of the filters. And frequently, the filters do _not_ work; sometimes, reloading the documents seems to re-set everything, but that's not always the case. Basically, the system seems to be set up in a way that requires some VB programming to work, and even then, it won't work consistently

Is there a decent tutorial on how to work with Word and Excel in a mail merge?

 

[Brian Siano]

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. I just set up a merge, with filters, and it worked fine. I saved the file, reloaded it... and then tried to change the filters. The filters could _not_ be changed. I went through the process of resetting the filters, the list refreshed... and the same old filters were in place. Tried refreshing the list, and it didn't work

And there's nothing in Word that _explains_ why this is so

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I'd have a look at Cindy Meister's pages on Word 2002 mail merge at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MM2002/MM2002.htm

However, there is an error in Word 2002 mail merge where Word loses its mail
merge data source when the data source has columns with spaces in the column
(field) name and filters have been applied to that column, and I think
there's another problem where the filter is applied to a different column.
So it could be worth at least verifying that by e.g. copying your workbook
and removing any spaces in the field names (if there are any ) and
seeing if Word's behaviour changes.

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP

In previous versions of Word, I was able to set up mail merges very

easily. I could set the document to merge with a particular Excel
spreadsheet, with specific filters, and all I'd have to do was have it merge
away.

But with Word 2002, merging is extremely frustrating. First of all, every

time I open the Word merge file, I have to re-link to the Excel spreadsheet.
Then, I have to re-set all of the filters. And frequently, the filters do
_not_ work; sometimes, reloading the documents seems to re-set everything,
but that's not always the case. Basically, the system seems to be set up in
a way that requires some VB programming to work, and even then, it won't
work consistently.

 

[Brian Siano]

Thanks, Peter. I hadn't known that Wod had that error (the one with spaces in the field names), but I search-and-replaced the spaces with underscores. The merge file seems to be able to re-establish the link now, which is nice. I'll keep an eye out for any glitches with the filters.