View Merged Data DISAPPEARING OBJECTS

[allisvoid]

Hello. Last night for I don't know how many hours, I sat here and i
figured out how mail merge works on my own. I had it working perfectly
except for when I would simulate the merge I get "Word found locked
fields. Word cannot update locked fields." Though it still entered all
the data where I needed, I wanted to get rid of this error message. So,
to fix it I chose to select all (Ctrl+A) and then I hit Ctrl+Shift+F11
to unlock any field I had in the document. This fixed the error,
however when I view merged data or merge the data to a printer (which
is what I need to be doing with this document everyday of every week)
some objects disappear. I did not CREATE the original document. I
edited it and cleaned it up and made it work with Mail Merge (to give
you an idea; I work at an eye clinic and we have an exam package that
can be up to 16 or 17 pages - we have to write a name, date, date of
birth and ID number on each of those pages - so I'm going to use mail
merge to make this easier adn quicker) so I have no idea what they used
to create the portion that is disappearing. In order to edit the
disappearing portion I have to right-click it and hit edit picture. As
far as I see this only happens at this spot in the document (it's 9
pages currently). ANY help would be greatly appreciated. I'm on XP Pro
and I'm running Word 2002 (free from the company... i'd much rather
office XP but whatever). Thanks in advance!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You can only work around some of these problems, but see the following
Knowledgebase article:

WD2002: Error Message: Word Found Locked Fields During Update

at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292155/en-us

Peter Jamieson

 

[allisvoid]

UPDATE: This stuff disappears as soon as I select the source data using
the mail merge toolbar. It will reappear if I hit undo but as soon as I
merge the data, it's gone. Also, It does not print... I thought maybe
it just wasn't visible but it would print but it does not.

THANKS AGAIN... this is SO frustrating!!!!!!!!!

 

[allisvoid]

Good to know but my concern is the disappearing objects I have, which
are the most important part of that page in the document. You think
maybe when I selected everything and unlocked it that somehow I
unlocked those objects? Allowing them to move? I'm clueless. I was so
happy to get this working and now it's broken...

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As long as you have the original document with its images, I would probably
try something along the following lines:

Make sure you keep your original!

Follow Method (1) in the article I mentioned, i.e. switch off the automatic
creation of drawing canvases.

For each troublesome image in the document,
a. right-click the drawing canvas it's on (assuming there is one)
b. Cut
c. Edit|Paste Special and choose the Picture (Enhanced Metafile) option

(I'd test a merge by merging to a new document after the first such
cut/paste to ensure that you're getting the results you need).

What concerns me more is that you are getting your starting document from
elsewhere. If the above process works, but you have to do it every week, you
need to persuade the originator of the document to insert the graphics in a
way that's easier for you to deal with (Actually, you /might/ be able to use
a macro to do the work each time, but I don't think it would be very
robust).

I'm not that familiar with Word graphics either so you may get a better
handle on how to do this from someone else in here or one of the other Word
groups.

Peter Jamieson

If the graphic is inline