multiple docs, one data source

[kp]

In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and merge that
info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for each
document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing? (Mentioning
the version of Word and what the data source is usually helps, too). If your
documents all specify a particular data source, you should not need to
re-open the data source - it should be done automatically each time you open
a document that uses it - although these days you may face additional
security-related dialog boxes. If you have to "re-open" for each document,
that suggests you are actually using a different data source for each set of
merges.

Peter Jamieson

 

[kp]

I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for each
document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the same
mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a document, I'm
prompted to open the data source.

kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command" message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data source.
For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with an Access
data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't a lot you can
do about that other than change the data source. Other possible problems
include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use the
complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder with a
short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or putting in your
My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson

 

[kp]

not any more. I had then when I downloaded the big service pack. But then I
had to replace my hard drive and when I did, I did not put on that service
pack because of that irritating message. I had suggestions for how to fix
it, but it was beyond my capabilities.
kp

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command" message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with
an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't a
lot you can do about that other than change the data source. Other
possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use
the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder
with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or
putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson

I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp

 

[kp]

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of mine.
So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with my own
datasource forever....

kp

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command" message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with
an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't a
lot you can do about that other than change the data source. Other
possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use
the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder
with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or
putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson

I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Yes, it's unfortunate.

Peter Jamieson

not any more. I had then when I downloaded the big service pack. But then
I had to replace my hard drive and when I did, I did not put on that
service pack because of that irritating message. I had suggestions for
how to fix it, but it was beyond my capabilities.
kp

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with
an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't
a lot you can do about that other than change the data source. Other
possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use
the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder
with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or
putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson

I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data source,
you should not need to re-open the data source - it should be done
automatically each time you open a document that uses it - although
these days you may face additional security-related dialog boxes. If
you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests you are actually
using a different data source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and merge
that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for each
document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of mine.

So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with my own
datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge main
document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's supposed to
work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I mentioned before
(in which case I suspect that the only viable workaround will be to change
the type of data source), or you are doing something wrong, or at least
doing things in an unexpected way. My suspicion is the former. However, can
you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office Address
List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard? Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of mine.
So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with my own
datasource forever....

kp

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with
an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't
a lot you can do about that other than change the data source. Other
possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use
the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder
with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or
putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson

I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data source,
you should not need to re-open the data source - it should be done
automatically each time you open a document that uses it - although
these days you may face additional security-related dialog boxes. If
you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests you are actually
using a different data source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and merge
that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for each
document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[kp]

Sorry for the late reply. I created the datasource within the mailmerge
wizard. It is save in the "my data sources" file in My Documents and is an
..mdb file.

kp

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with
my own datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge main
document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's supposed
to work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I mentioned
before (in which case I suspect that the only viable workaround will be to
change the type of data source), or you are doing something wrong, or at
least doing things in an unexpected way. My suspicion is the former.
However, can you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office Address
List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard? Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with
my own datasource forever....

kp

Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with
an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't
a lot you can do about that other than change the data source. Other
possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it
is in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to
use the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a
folder with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves.
Or putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson


I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data source,
you should not need to re-open the data source - it should be done
automatically each time you open a document that uses it - although
these days you may face additional security-related dialog boxes. If
you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests you are
actually using a different data source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and merge
that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for each
document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, one further thought before I have another look at this: do you only have
one mail merge main document open at any given time, or are you e.g. opeing,
merging, opening (or trying to), merging, etc. etc.?

Peter Jamieson

Sorry for the late reply. I created the datasource within the mailmerge
wizard. It is save in the "my data sources" file in My Documents and is an
.mdb file.

kp

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with
my own datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge main
document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's supposed
to work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I mentioned
before (in which case I suspect that the only viable workaround will be
to change the type of data source), or you are doing something wrong, or
at least doing things in an unexpected way. My suspicion is the former.
However, can you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office Address
List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard? Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs with
my own datasource forever....

kp
Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002
with an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there probably
isn't a lot you can do about that other than change the data source.
Other possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it
is in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to
use the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a
folder with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves.
Or putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson


I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones for
each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use the
same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open a
document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data source,
you should not need to re-open the data source - it should be done
automatically each time you open a document that uses it - although
these days you may face additional security-related dialog boxes. If
you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests you are
actually using a different data source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and
merge that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for each
document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[kp]

open, merge, save, close. open the next one, merge, save, close.

If I try to open more than one, each still prompts for the data source.
kp

OK, one further thought before I have another look at this: do you only
have one mail merge main document open at any given time, or are you e.g.
opeing, merging, opening (or trying to), merging, etc. etc.?

Peter Jamieson

Sorry for the late reply. I created the datasource within the mailmerge
wizard. It is save in the "my data sources" file in My Documents and is
an .mdb file.

kp

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge main
document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's supposed
to work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I mentioned
before (in which case I suspect that the only viable workaround will be
to change the type of data source), or you are doing something wrong, or
at least doing things in an unexpected way. My suspicion is the former.
However, can you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office Address
List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard? Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

kp
Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002
with an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there
probably isn't a lot you can do about that other than change the data
source. Other possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has already
opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it
is in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try
to use the complete path name). You can try moving the data source to
a folder with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything
improves. Or putting in your My Data Sources folder may help.

Peter Jamieson


I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones
for each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use
the same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open
a document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data source,
you should not need to re-open the data source - it should be done
automatically each time you open a document that uses it - although
these days you may face additional security-related dialog boxes. If
you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests you are
actually using a different data source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and
merge that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for
each document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I'm going to he to go back to this:

b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data source.
For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with an Access
data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't a lot you can
do about that other than change the data source. Other possible problems
include:


- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use the
complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder with a
short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or putting in your
My Data Sources folder may help.

In other words, I would try a different /type/ of data source (e.g. a table
in a Word document or perhaps in Excel) and see if it makes any difference.

Another thing that it might be useful to try is to re-connect, then use
File|Save As to save your file in HTML format under a new name. Then open
the HTML file using Notepad (so you can see the HTML tags) and look down the
file until you see a block of information about the data source file, query,
etc. I would be interested to know whether the file name in there is the one
you expect.

Peter Jamieson

open, merge, save, close. open the next one, merge, save, close.

If I try to open more than one, each still prompts for the data source.
kp

OK, one further thought before I have another look at this: do you only
have one mail merge main document open at any given time, or are you e.g.
opeing, merging, opening (or trying to), merging, etc. etc.?

Peter Jamieson

Sorry for the late reply. I created the datasource within the mailmerge
wizard. It is save in the "my data sources" file in My Documents and is
an .mdb file.

kp
I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge main
document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's
supposed to work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I
mentioned before (in which case I suspect that the only viable
workaround will be to change the type of data source), or you are doing
something wrong, or at least doing things in an unexpected way. My
suspicion is the former. However, can you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office Address
List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard? Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

kp
Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a
data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002
with an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there
probably isn't a lot you can do about that other than change the data
source. Other possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has
already opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if
it is in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still
try to use the complete path name). You can try moving the data
source to a folder with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if
anything improves. Or putting in your My Data Sources folder may
help.

Peter Jamieson


I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones
for each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use
the same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I open
a document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is usually
helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular data
source, you should not need to re-open the data source - it should
be done automatically each time you open a document that uses it -
although these days you may face additional security-related dialog
boxes. If you have to "re-open" for each document, that suggests
you are actually using a different data source for each set of
merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and
merge that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for
each document I open?

Thanks,
kp

 

[kp]

Thanks Peter, for this suggestion. I'll give it a shot in a day or so and
let you know what happened.

I'm sure this isn't an error...the original mailmerge docs were created by
another user and she set up her own data sources. Then, she emailed me the
docs and I set up mine. It just didn't occur to me that it would look for
hers. I'll try fiddling around with saving the docs somehow so they'll hook
up to my datasource.
kp

I'm going to he to go back to this:

b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source.
For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002 with an Access
data source can cause this to happen, and there probably isn't a lot you
can
do about that other than change the data source. Other possible problems
include:


- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if it is
in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still try to use
the
complete path name). You can try moving the data source to a folder with a
short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if anything improves. Or putting in
your
My Data Sources folder may help.

In other words, I would try a different /type/ of data source (e.g. a
table in a Word document or perhaps in Excel) and see if it makes any
difference.

Another thing that it might be useful to try is to re-connect, then use
File|Save As to save your file in HTML format under a new name. Then open
the HTML file using Notepad (so you can see the HTML tags) and look down
the file until you see a block of information about the data source file,
query, etc. I would be interested to know whether the file name in there
is the one you expect.

Peter Jamieson

open, merge, save, close. open the next one, merge, save, close.

If I try to open more than one, each still prompts for the data source.
kp

OK, one further thought before I have another look at this: do you only
have one mail merge main document open at any given time, or are you
e.g. opeing, merging, opening (or trying to), merging, etc. etc.?

Peter Jamieson

Sorry for the late reply. I created the datasource within the mailmerge
wizard. It is save in the "my data sources" file in My Documents and is
an .mdb file.

kp
I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

OK, once you have selected a data source /and saved the mail merge
main document/, the association /should/ be forever. That's how it's
supposed to work. So either you are encountering one of the errors I
mentioned before (in which case I suspect that the only viable
workaround will be to change the type of data source), or you are
doing something wrong, or at least doing things in an unexpected way.
My suspicion is the former. However, can you tell us
a. what type of data source it is (Word document? A new "Office
Address List" (OAL) created within the Word Mail Merge Wizard?
Something else?)
b. what steps you are taking to connect to the data source?

Peter Jamieson

I should have said in my earlier reply...
what I'm getting is

<document name> is a mailmerge main document. Word cannot find its
datasource.

I see it's looking for a datasource with a different name instead of
mine. So I guess I need to know how to associate the mailmerge docs
with my own datasource forever....

kp
Ah, OK, are you prompted with a message along the lines of

Opening this document will run the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [tablename]
Data from your database will be placed in the document.
Do you want to continue?

?

If so, you need to look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765

"You receive the "Opening this will run the following SQL command"
message
when you open a Word mail merge main document that is linked to a
data
source"

If not,
a. what error message are you seeing?
b. there are errors in Word 2002 that can cause it to lose the data
source. For example, specifying sort/filter conditions in Word 2002
with an Access data source can cause this to happen, and there
probably isn't a lot you can do about that other than change the
data source. Other possible problems include:
- Word cannot open the data source because something else has
already opened it.
- The data source has a very long path name (it does not matter if
it is in the same folder as the .doc that uses it - Word will still
try to use the complete path name). You can try moving the data
source to a folder with a short name, e.g. c:\mydata\ and see if
anything improves. Or putting in your My Data Sources folder may
help.

Peter Jamieson


I'm using Word 2002. I'm using one data source, not different ones
for each document.

I created the data source myself to go with these documents.

I'm not sure how else to describe it. I have 7 documents that use
the same mailmerge fields and the same data source. Each time I
open a document, I'm prompted to open the data source.

kp
Can you say a little bit more about what you are actually doing?
(Mentioning the version of Word and what the data source is
usually helps, too). If your documents all specify a particular
data source, you should not need to re-open the data source - it
should be done automatically each time you open a document that
uses it - although these days you may face additional
security-related dialog boxes. If you have to "re-open" for each
document, that suggests you are actually using a different data
source for each set of merges.

Peter Jamieson


In my work, I routinely set up one record in my data source and
merge that info into multiple documents.

But I have to re-open the datasource each time I open one of the
documents.

Is there a way to open the datasource and have it stay open for
each document I open?

Thanks,
kp