MS Foxpro Missing from Type of File pulldown

[Howard Shachter]

My data source is a Visual Foxpro .dbf file, but that file type is not
listed in the pull down menu of the Mail Merge wizard. (Of course, the
standard .dbf file type does not work with VFP tables, even though it is a
Microsoft product). I am using Word 2000 on a Win XP workstation on my
corporate network.

The Visual Foxpro ODBC driver is set up in the ODBC Data Source
Administrator. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Word, to no avail.
Additionally, I get the Visual Foxpro file type in other copies of Word in
my company. I have browsed the archived newsgroups and cannot find the
exact answer for this situation, but it appears to be a common problem with
Word.

Please help.

Howard Shachter

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Yes, it is a problem, but to merge using most ODBC drivers you need at least
the following
a. there must be an ODBC DSN (User or System) for the ODBC driver you want
to use. If there isn't one, set one up using the ODBC administrator.
b. you have to check "Select Method" in "Open Data Source" to see the list
of data sources available, and in this case, you will probably need to check
"Show All" within the box that appears.

If that isn't enough, you may have to use the MS Query button in Open Data
Source to set up the connection.

 

[Howard Shachter]

Yes, it is a problem, but to merge using most ODBC drivers you need at least
the following
a. there must be an ODBC DSN (User or System) for the ODBC driver you want
to use. If there isn't one, set one up using the ODBC administrator.
b. you have to check "Select Method" in "Open Data Source" to see the list
of data sources available, and in this case, you will probably need to check
"Show All" within the box that appears.

If that isn't enough, you may have to use the MS Query button in Open Data
Source to set up the connection.

Hello Peter,

Thank you for your rapid response. An ODBC DSN was already set up for
the Visual Foxpro driver. But it still was not listed in the Type of
File pulldown.

So I did what you suggested. I used "All Files *.*" to navigate to my
data file, and the resulting dialog box still did not show the Foxpro
driver when I checked "Show All".

So then I tried it using the MS Query button and ..... it worked. So
then I went back to the original mail merge master, opened it, and did
not get any error messages. I did a merge, and it worked without
complaint. I don't understand why, but thank you for the solution.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Glad you got it to work.

Thank you for your rapid response. An ODBC DSN was already set up for
the Visual Foxpro driver. But it still was not listed in the Type of
File pulldown.

Yes, that list is hard coded in Word somewhere I think.

So I did what you suggested. I used "All Files *.*" to navigate to my
data file, and the resulting dialog box still did not show the Foxpro
driver when I checked "Show All".

It's the DSN name that's listed, not the driver. For a DSN named foxdsn the
entry would look something like

foxdsn via ODBC (*.dbf)

If you don't see it then I'd guess that your DSN is either a File DSN or the
list of User/System DSNs has been corrupted in some way (which, as it
happens, is what has happened on my system).

So then I tried it using the MS Query button and ..... it worked. So
then I went back to the original mail merge master, opened it, and did
not get any error messages. I did a merge, and it worked without
complaint.

Weird! But nicely weird, for once.