using XML as mail merge data source in Word 2003

[c2pro]

Can a simple (single table) XML file be used as a data source in Word 2003's mail merge process. Word 2003's on-line docs list HTML as a data source but not XML. I really don't want to transform the XML file to HTML, or import / map XML into Excel 2003 and then use Excel as the data source.

Thanks.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As far as I know, this is not possible "out of the box".

In principle, you could use an XML file as a data source if you had one of
the following:
a. a Word text converter capable of reading an XML file
b. an ODBC driver that treated an XML file as a table in a data source
c. an OLEDB provider that treated an XML file as a table in a data source
d. (possibly) something that would allow Jet to treat an XML file as a
linked table

I have a barebones, unfinished and poorly tested (a). Despam my address and
e-mail me if you are interested. In particular, it needs to be modified to
take account of new security stuff in Word 2003. I had plans for a
substantial overhaul and a crack at producing a (c), but they have been on
hold for a while. I suspect if (d) is feasible it would need a (b) anyway.

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://www.mvps.org/word

Can a simple (single table) XML file be used as a data source in Word

2003's mail merge process. Word 2003's on-line docs list HTML as a data
source but not XML. I really don't want to transform the XML file to HTML,
or import / map XML into Excel 2003 and then use Excel as the data source.

 

[Claus]

I changed the extension on the xml file to html and Word 2002 opened it as
an html table just fine. I was then able to do the mail merge.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Hmm, that's interesting as it doesn't seem to work here.

What text do the first few lines of your .xml file contain?