'Select * From ... ' dialog box keeps prompting

[Rune]

With Windows XP and Word 2002 I keep getting prompted for the above in
non-automated docs. I have read the article (289830) in the KB about it, but
I'm still not sure what is the best way to not get this message, and why I
get it with every file I've linked so far. Whether it be from text, excel or
access. This isn't standard behaviour is it? I thought it happens with
documents that used to be linked via DDE (and OBDC?), but that can´t be
because the data sources and docs are made from scratch.

And *where* exactly do I change the properties of OpenDataSource? or where
do I put it?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I wonder whether you need to look at the following article instead?

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

 

[Rune]

Heh Same problem practically, way different solution. Yours is much
better Peter. Thanks very much, quite a relief.
I was wondering though, *when* is it that you get this prompt, because in
the article it says you *may* get it, but when do you and when don't you? I
got it all the time, no exceptions till now with 2002 and 2003. I'm trying to
understand the mechanics behind it. When is it ever handy to have this
prompting on?
Nevertheless, thanks for the answer!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I was wondering though, *when* is it that you get this prompt, because in

the article it says you *may* get it, but when do you and when don't you?

I would guess that the authors are being cautious. Word has a number of
different mechanisms for connecting to external data and it may be that in
some circumstances the prompt isn't displayed - for example, if the data is
coming in via one of Word's external "text converters", the behaviour may
depend on whether or not the converter has been marked by its author as
being free of buffer overflow problems (also a new property of converters in
Word 2003). But I don't know.

When is it ever handy to have this
prompting on?

As I understand it, this prompt is one of the many changes MS has made to
try to tighten up security - because SQL execution may result in side
effects (for example in MS Access, an SQL query can invoke user-defined
functions that can do anything Access VBA can do) it is just a warning to
users that there could be undesirable consequences. So IMO its main use is
probably to alert people to proceed with caution. How people actually
respond to prompts such as this one is another question