Secure Access 97 data source

[Mark]

I am trying to run a mail merge using Word 2000 and have
it use as it's data source a query from a secured Access
97 database. Whenever i try to connect to this data source
it always tries to launch Access 2000 ( I have both
versions installed) and then it says that i do not have
the appropriate permissions.

What is the problem?

Thanks if you can help.

Mark Weiler

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Mark,

I am trying to run a mail merge using Word 2000 and have
it use as it's data source a query from a secured Access
97 database. Whenever i try to connect to this data source
it always tries to launch Access 2000 ( I have both
versions installed) and then it says that i do not have
the appropriate permissions.

What is the problem?

Well, there are actually two problems. One is that the
default DDE connection has to use a database of the same
version as Word. The other is that a DDE connection can't
always open a secured database.

You might be able to do this with an ODBC connection, but by
"secure" do you mean you've password-protected the file, or
defined user names + passwords?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[Peter Jamieson]

I suspect you will find better help in an Access group as far as security
issues and good practices are concerned, but
a. Word 2000 probably tries to start the program associates with .mdb files
(probably the most recently installed version of Access, or the version that
has most recently updated the registry with its file associations (more
likely to be Access 2000). I doubt if it chooses an msaccess.exe depending
on the version of the actual .mdb
b. Word appears to check the version of the Access program it is using when
it connects via DDE, but I do not know how it uses that information.
c. To use secured Access 97 databases in Access 2000 you need Access 2000
to be using the same workgroup security file (AKA security file or system
database) as the Access 97 database requires, or to convert the security
file. I wonder whether you actually have Access 97 set up to use one
workgroup file and Access 2000 set up to use another (or none at all, which
is what I suspect the situation is here).
d. Word does not know anything about which system database to use when it
connects via DDE - it relies completely on Access to do the right thing.
Something you could consider is using ODBC to connect to the data and bypass
Access- in that case you should be able to set up either an ODBC DSN (System
or User) which specifies the appropriate workgroup database, username and
password, or specify all the info. in the connection string of a call to
OpenDataSource in Word VBA.