problem merging from microsoft excel

[amalthea]

I am having a problem with the mail merge program in word. My computer
runs on MS office xp. I have a created mail merge document in Word
with its data source being from excel. I used it multible times.
Recently, when I try to open my mail merge document, it tells me my
document "is a mail merge main document. Word cannot find its data
source," which is in excel. I click on "find Data Source". I find
the excel file and click ok. This will then bring me to a window that
says to "select table", but no tables are avalible. The excel sheet
has 3 named tables in it, but none appear. I would like to be able to
reconnect my documents with the excel sheets.

I have also tried to "type a new list" with the mail merger wizard in
word. It gives me the error message of "Operation can not be completed
because of dialog or database engine failures. Please try again
later." When I try later, it still does not work.

I thought these two might be connected, but I am not sure. Anybody
have any ideas on how to fix this problem?

Thank you in advance,
Amy

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Amalthea,

I am having a problem with the mail merge program in word. My computer
runs on MS office xp. I have a created mail merge document in Word
with its data source being from excel. I used it multible times.
Recently, when I try to open my mail merge document, it tells me my
document "is a mail merge main document. Word cannot find its data
source," which is in excel. I click on "find Data Source". I find
the excel file and click ok. This will then bring me to a window that
says to "select table", but no tables are avalible. The excel sheet
has 3 named tables in it, but none appear. I would like to be able to
reconnect my documents with the excel sheets.

I have also tried to "type a new list" with the mail merger wizard in
word. It gives me the error message of "Operation can not be completed
because of dialog or database engine failures. Please try again
later." When I try later, it still does not work.

I thought these two might be connected, but I am not sure.

they could well be connected. See if this article helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322215/

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[amalthea]

Thank you Cindy for your suggestion. However, my MDAC is up to date
and I am still having the same problem. I have gone as far as to
remove Microsoft office and reinstall it as well. And it still does
not work. Any other suggestions?

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Amalthea,

my MDAC is up to date
and I am still having the same problem. I have gone as far as to
remove Microsoft office and reinstall it as well. And it still does
not work. Any other suggestions?

I'm afraid not. You can try searching microsoft.com for the error
message you're seeing, but as long as the problem is not with Outlook,
there's not much else there.

FWIW, this appears to be a problem with the OLE DB connection over the
JET provider (both Access and Excel use the same one). You can try
activating "Confirm conversions on open" in Tools/Options/General.
That will let you choose how mail merge connects to the data source.
Try connecting to Excel with the other methods listed, after you
choose the *.xls file (my preference would be ODBC, if I have a
choice).

Other than that, you probably need to contact Microsoft Support to
help you track down what's "gone bad" on your installation.

Ah, wait a sec. The newer versions of MDAC don't necessarily supply the
drivers and providers for Jet (Access). I think you may need to look
for and download a separate tool for this. You might look for that and
see if it helps with the default connection method.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question
or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail