Worth a try I suppose
I don't think anyone here knows what the cause is either, so we can only
really suggest things to consider/check and/or possible workarounds.
For your immediate needs, it's either
a. get DDE to work or
b. get ODBC to work or
c. export the data to a format that you can connect to
Since it's sounds like your need is immediate, I'd suggest you consider
using Access to do (c), and connect Word to a different data source.
For (b), going back to Doug's suggestion of using "Confirm conversion at
open", did you see an ODBC option listed? If so, did you try that? If
not, I think in Office 2000 at least some of the ODBC stuff was still
optional, but you could you modify/repair in Office Setup and add the
stuff. Unfortunately, ODBC cannot do everything DDE can do so that may
not be enough either.
For (a),
1. I guess you have already tried starting with Access and your
database open before you try to connect, /and/ Access open but the
database closed, /and/ neither open.
2. It may be worth checking Task manager to see if any copies of
WINWORD, MSACCESS, or even OUTLOOK are running. It's just possible that
other tasks are blocking DDE.
3. It may be worth trying some other DDE-related tests using Word fields:
a. start Word, then a { DDE } field into a blank Word document as follows:
{ DDE Winword System Sysitems }
(use ctrl-F9 to insert the special {} - everything else is text)
Select the field and use F9 to update it. The result should look
something like the following . If necessary, use Alt-F9 to see the result.
SYSITEMS TOPICS FORMATS
If that works, it says that DDE is working well enough for Word to be
able to communicate with itself. If not, DDE is definitely in trouble on
your system!
If it worked, you can try starting Access first, then use the same
approach except use:
{ DDE MSACCESS SYSTEM SYSITEMS }
If that doesn't work, then there is indeed something wrong with DDE that
needs fixing. Truble is, I do not know how, and although I can think of
further tests, I'm not sure they will lead to a resolution. But...
4. There is one possibly relevant KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892850
Unfortunately, if you are using Windows 2000, you have to contact MS
support to get a fix. If you're using Windows XP, I believe the fix is
in SP3.
That said, it is only my opinion but I doubt if that is the cause in
this case.
{ DDE Excel System Sysitems }
Something that is worth trying is to see if Word can connect to anthing
(e.g. itself) using DDE:
OK, if you feel like it there's one other thing you could try, which is to
try to connect to an application that is neither Word nor Excel, using DDE.
if that works, then there's probably a problem specifically with Excel
configuration - how to fix it, I do not know, but since re-installing Office
does not typically destroy all configuration informatin for the application,
it might be a question of removing a registry entry and letting Excel
rebuild it: it's probably a question for the Excel experts.
There are various programs that should respond to DDE requests. I make all
the suggestions I can think of that involve common windows/office apps
below. When trying to connect to any of them (same with Excel) it's a good
idea to ensure that the program is started and you have dismissed any
startup dialog boxes. In some case the "program" has probably already been
started.
Then in Word, change the DDE field as follows:
Change
{ DDE WINWORD SYSTEM SYSITEMS }
to the following:
Some info. from Windows Explorer:
{ DDE FOLDERS APPPROPERTIES }
Info. from MS Access:
{ DDE MSACCESS SYSTEM SYSITEMS } Access using another method that uses DDE:
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk