Word 2003 Letter doc and Excel 2003 data source

[Barnie M]

I've created a Word 2003 letter and envelope doc in word to read from an
Excel 2003 data source. I have all the proper labels at the top of each
column (no special characters or spaces). When I tell Word that the data
source is an Excel spreadsheet, and click ok; it keeps coming back to the
same dialog box. If I click cancel it gives me an error message "this
operation cannot be completed because of dialog or database engine failures".
This second problem is that when I can get connected to the database and try
to select my merge receipents it says that "the connection to the receipent's
list has been lost. Check that the file has not been moved or deleted and
that the network location is accessible". Can anyone tell me, what I'm doing
wrong or is there some setting on my computer or network server that needs to
be changed?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Try changing the type of document back to a Normal Word document, save it,
close it, then open it again and then change it back to a formletter type
mail merge main document and then try to re-attach the data source. If that
does not overcome the problem, from the Tools menu, select Options and then
go to the General tab and check the box against the "Confirm conversions at
open" item. Then when you attach the datasource, a dialog box will appear
asking you for the method by which the connection should be made. Try the
DDE option. It is older technology, but it does sometimes overcome
problems.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Barnie M]

Thanks Doug. Tried all of the above. I finally deleted the document and
started over from scratch. Did Tools>>Option>>General>> and select the
conversion option and it seems to be working now. But I'll try again
tomorrow morning and see if the problem comes back, as it seems to come and
go.