Winword 2003 on MS Server 2003 keeps losing data source.

[Brian Ely]

Background



Many years ago we developed a Parking enforcement system. This has been in
the market place for over eight years and the functionality described below
has not been modified for many years.



The system makes extensive use of 'automated' Mail Merges using a template
document and a text based header file/data source.



Problem



Recently we have found a problem that we are unable to solve.



When opening the mail merge templates for editing, we get the message
saying:



"xxxxx.doc is a mail merge main document. Word could not find the header
source, <Path to header file>\xxxxx.hed"



The options then are to 'Find Data Source.' or 'Options.'



If you choose 'Find Data Source.' and browse to the .hed file (which is
actually where it says it's looking in the message above) and choose 'Open',
you continue to get the above message and can't get out of the loop.



If you use the option 'Remove Data/Header Source', use the 'Mail Merge
Helper' to re-attach to the header file and save the document, then when it's
subsequently edited, you get the same error again.



This only seems to occur in the following environment:



Using Winword 2003 (any service pack level),

Running on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server,

..hed files are held on a network drive or unc path.



If a document is created from scratch using Winword 2003 on Windows 2003
Server rather than using a document created under a previous version of
Winword then it still shows the same fault.



If the .doc file is on a mapped network drive or unc path but the .hed file
is on a physically attached drive then all is ok.



If I use Windows XP Pro (SP2) or Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (SP4) in
conjunction with Winword 2003 then I don't get the problem regardless of
where the documents/head files are stored.



Any help would be appreciated.



Cheers





Brian

 

[Peter Jamieson]

My guess is that this has to do with either
a. Internet Security zones, i.e. what is "trusted" or not "trusted"
according to Internet Explorer. This is likely to differ between Windows
2003 Server and Windows XP/earlier versions of Windows, or
b. Windows 2003 internet caching, which may also behave differently from
Windows XP. Don't ask me why I think that - I came across something about it
a while back and that's what popped into my head.

(a) sounds rather more likely and even credible.

Just my 2c worth.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Morag]

I have a similar problem, though it appeared whilst using Word XP on Windows
Server 2003. We've now upgraded to Word 2003 and continue to have the problem.

Another site I work at uses Word 2003 on Server 2003 and does not have this
problem at all even though using the same configuration, as far as I can tell.

If you've found a solution, please post it.

Morag

 

[Brian Ely]

Thankfully, M$ Office support were able to reproduce this with instructions
and after a nit on head scratching it seems it boils down to the added
security features of Win2003 Server.

Windows Server 2003 includes a new security module called "Internet Explorer
Enhanced Security configuration". This checks that all URL/UNC paths that
are used are secure and/or trusted. Having this in place stops Winword from
being able to open the .hed files we use that are stored on a UNC path.
The work around is to either:

1. Declare the UNC path name as a "Trusted Site" in Internet Explorer
"Tools/Internet Options/Security/Trusted Sites" ( For example file:\\marge )

OR

2. Remove the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security configuration

In our case, it's highly unlikely that we'll be able to use option #2 as
this affects the security settings of the server and I for one don't want to
have the conversation with 3rd party IT dept over the pros and cons of
removing this module however, option #1 is workable and can be switched
on/off as needs be.

I hope that helps....



B

 

[Morag]

We'd tried messing with intranet security and still it didn't solve the
problem.

The solution was to reinstall the full version of Word, so I'm told. I'm not
sure how it had been installed before but the reinstall did fix the problem.

Morag