Saving changes to Data Source

[Desperate Dave]

I recently updated to Office 2007. When I do a mail merge and edit /change
my data source during the mail merge I can no longer save the data source. I
get a window that says the data soruce is a read only file, which it is not.
I believe the .tmp file it creates when I open the data soruce, during the
edit, causes the read only window.

Need help any suggestions?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Dave,

At least some of the issues in this area are known and have been reported to
Microsoft - I had hoped there would be fixes in the SP1 release, but
apparently not. Which leaves me with no really helpful suggestions. So
probably unhelpful ones...
a. if your data source is on a network drive, try copying it to a local
drive (however, I do not think this is relevant in this case)
b. if possible, edit the data source outside Word.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Another method would be to use the edited/changed data source with a
Directory type mail merge in the main document for which you insert a one
row table with as many columns as there are fields in the data source and
insert a merge field into each of the cells of that table. Then when you
execute that merge to a new document, that document will contain a row of
data for each record in the data source. Insert a row at the top of the
table and into the cells of that row, insert the names of the merge fields.
Then save that document and use it as you data source.

--
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

 

[Desperate Dave]

Thank you Peter, I was afraid of that. My application requires me to change
field data constantly and to save it. I can edit the data source outside of
Merge but it is tedious and slow where as if I could save the data like
before it is a 1 click job. This really is not good.

Thanks for your repsonse

 

[Desperate Dave]

Thank you Doug, I will give this method and try and post my results.

 

[Desperate Dave]

Doug, I walked through your procedure and had the same results. I created a
Directory type mail merge data source amd saved it. Then I opened my
template and told the mail merge to use my exisiting "new" data source. I
edited/ changed the data source and finally tried to close the template after
I merged a letter. While closing I was asked, as usual, if I wanted to save
changes to the data source. I answered yes to saving changes and a window
popped up that said it is write protected. It would not let me save the data
source with changes.

 

[Desperate Dave]

Sorry, I meant "Read Only" file , not write protected

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

You seem to have misunderstood what I was suggesting, which was that after
executing the Directory merge, you insert a row at the top of that document
into which you insert the field names and then you save and use that
document as the data source.

--
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

 

[Desperate Dave]

I will have to research Directory type mail merge, I am not sure of the
concept. I thought I did it correctly. I will repost once I give it a try.

Thanks again,