Word 2007 Data Source Problem

[Mary Fetsch]

I have a Word 2003 mail merge document. Its data source is a Word 2003
document containing a table. The table's first row contains the field names.
I have been able to make changes to the data source and then save the
changes. I recently updated to Word 2007, and I can no longer save my data
source changes - it tells me the file is read only, but it's not. Help!

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Use File>Open to open the data source when the mail merge main document to
which it is attached is not open, and then make your changes directly in the
document that is to be used as the data source.

--
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

 

[Mary Fetsch]

Thanks for your response. I was hoping to hear something different. That's
going to be a major aggravation to make changes directly to the table. It's
so much easier to do changes by editing them when in the mail merge document.
Is this a bug in Word 2007? Would it be better to convert the Word data
source to an Excel file, or some other type of file?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

If you add the original Mail Merge Helper to the QAT, you can still edit the
data source and you will be asked to save it when you exit from the mail
merge operation..

--
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

 

[Mary Fetsch]

When I say "Yes" to saving it, it tells me it's a read only document.

(I can edit the data source without the original Mail Merge Helper on the
QAT. When I click Edit Recipient List and then click Edit, it comes up in
the same format as using the original Mail Merge Helper.)

No matter which way I use to edit my data, if I click View Source from that
screen, it brings up my data source table document - if I click the Save
button, it still tells me the file is read only.

Also, when I click the X to close my mail merge document, it tells me the
data source has not been saved, and it refers to my mail merge document with
what I guess is a temp file name (like F7F5193B.doc). (It says something
like "F7F5193B.doc is a mail merge main document that is attached to a data
source...."). What's up with that?

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Open and save the data source in Word 97-2003 format and then you can edit
and save it. Or if you leave it in Word 2007 format, use the View Source
option to make your edits and save it with a different file name.

--
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

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Is this a bug in Word 2007?

This problem has certainly been reported to Microsoft successfully (i.e.
it's on their list). Whether/when they will modify it I do not know.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Mary Fetsch]

The data source is already a Word 2003 document. I changed and saved it
again in Word 97-2003 format, and it works the same as it did before. I
saved the main document and the data source as 2007 documents, and I had the
same results. It appears to me that Word 2007 doesn't allow saving data
sources that are Word tables.

If I open the data source by itself and change it, I can save it. If I edit
and change it from the merge document, I can't save it with the same name
because it's read only. Looks like my only options are:
- Edit it directly (which would be quite tedious with the Word table)
- Edit it from the merge document, save it with a new name, and then
rename it to the original name (also tedious)
- Copy it to an Excel file and use that (which would be easier to change)
- Copy it to a database and use that (I'm not familiar with Access)

No option is as easy as using it directly from the merge document, but I
don't have a choice. It's very frustrating.

Thanks for your help with this!

 

[Mary Fetsch]

Thanks for letting me know. It doesn't help me now, but it's nice to know
they may fix it - hopefully they'll do that soon. I have a lot of merges
with Word tables, and I don't want to have to change them all. If you hear
that they've fixed this, please let me know.