Waiting acceppt DDE command

[Carool]

Hi All,

Having a problem with mailmerging an Access db in word.
Both are 2000 versions with the latest updates and I have
full rights.

On screen the following message appears: waiting for
microsoft access to accept dde commands" and Word will
freeze up.

Has anybody seen this problem. I couldn't find any
solution on the net and believe me: I looked onder each
stone ;-)

Thanks in advance for your input,

Carool

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Carool,

I take it this message is being displayed in Word's STATUS
BAR (lower left corner of the Word window)?

If Access is closed before opening the main merge document,
and you then open the main merge document, you see this
message, right? And has Access been started up at this point
(do you see an Access icon in the Windows Task Bar)?

There's a setting in Tools/Options/General (I think) in
Access about ignoring DDE. Has this been activated, by any
chance?

Having a problem with mailmerging an Access db in word.
Both are 2000 versions with the latest updates and I have
full rights.

On screen the following message appears: waiting for
microsoft access to accept dde commands" and Word will
freeze up.

Has anybody seen this problem. I couldn't find any
solution on the net and believe me: I looked onder each
stone ;-)

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Carool]

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your answer but unfortunately it didn't solve
the problem.

I unchecked and rechecked the DDE options in Access and
started the mailmerge when access was open and closed. I
increased the number of retries etc in access but with no
result.

The "waiting for dde connection" pops up then word stops
responding when access is closed. When access is open
word simply stops responding. When I try to mailmerge via
ODBC it appears to work fine.

I already re-installed office twice and I don't
understand what is going on.

Again thank you for your answer and I hope you have any
other suggestions,

Carool

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Carool,

I unchecked and rechecked the DDE options in Access and
started the mailmerge when access was open and closed

Just so we're absolutely clear: "Ignore DDE requests" must
be UNchecked. If you've "rechecked" it, this would
certainly be the problem. However...

DDE is one of those things that works fine on some
machines, and not at all on others. I had a machine once
(actually, I still have it, sort of as a file backup) where
DDE was slower than molasses. It would take three or so
minutes for each DDE-call during mail merge. If one didn't
know this is what was happening, it seemed Word had hanged
(but it hadn't, really). I suspect this may be the problem
in your case. Note that the problem doesn't originate in
Word; it's something to do with how your entire Windows
configuration is handling DDE calls.

I've never come across a solution for this, although
reformatting the hard-drive and re-installing Windows and
all applications might help. Personally, I just made sure I
used ODBC.

And, over the years in these newsgroups, I see this problem
come up an average of maybe twice / year.

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

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any
follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Carool]

Hi Cindy,

Maybe it's best to classify this one under the X in the
windows department. As I don't want to reinstall windows I
give up and live with this error.

Thanks again for your input.

Kind regards,

Carool