MS Word Mail Merge from Excel -- Force Excel to open the datafile?

[jonmallin]

I am working on a mail merge from an MS Excel (Office 2002 SP3)
spreadsheet into Word (Office 2002 SP3). The merge itself is working
well. Generally, when I open up a Word file that contains a mail
merge, the Excel file with the merge data opens automatically.
However, sometimes the Excel file doesn't open automatically. Is
there some setting or work around to force the Excel file to open
always?

 

[jonmallin]

More info.. switched from Office 2000 to Office XP. It seems that
documents created in Office 2000 automatically open the Excel data
source. In Office XP, it seems that the data source does not load
automatically.

Anyone else encounter this? Any solutions?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item. Then when
you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, select the DDE
option in the dialog that appears asking be what method the connection
should be made.

--
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

 

[jonmallin]

I did some testing and it seems that if I create a mail merge document
in Word 2000, then the Excel data file automatically opens when I open
the Word file. If I create a mail merge document in Word 2002 (XP/
SP3), then the Excel data file does not automatically open. Is there
a way to force the Excel file to open in Word 2002 (XP/SP3)? Thanks
in advance.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

See response above.

--
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

 

[Graham Mayor]

Does it connect if the Excel file is in the same folder as the merge
document or in the My Data Sources folder?

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[jonmallin]

From the Tools menu in Word, select Options and then go to the General tab
and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at open" item.  Thenwhen
you attach the data source to the mail merge main document, select the DDE
option in the dialog that appears asking be what method the connection
should be made.

Doug,

Thanks. I'm still having some difficulty. When I open the Word
document, I get a box that says Word cannot find its data source.
Both the Word and Excel file are in the same directory. Ugh!
Thanks again.

Jon