word 97 mail merge vs word 2002 mail merge

[kempton mandeville]

Hi:

I have mail merge documents which were created in word 97
with data in ascii comma delimited text files using a data
header source to provide field names. When these files
are brought into word 2002, I can't find any reference to
or way to edit the header source. This appeared in the
word 97 mail merge helper, but not in the word 2002
wizard, nor anywhere else. What am I issing?

Thanks

Kempton Mandeville

 

[Peter Jamieson]

The option to have a separate header source stil exists in Word 2002 but you
have to revive the old MailMergeHelper to set one up - try
Tools|Customize|Commands, select the All Commands category then locate
MailMergeHelper in the list of commands and drag it to a menu or toolbar.

Even then, because Word 2002 uses a different default connection method
(OLEDB) than Word 97, you may find that it will not use a header source
properly. But perhaps we can try to cross that bridge if you come to it.

Finally, Word 2002 does not appear to let you have a mail merge main
document that /just/ has a header source.

 

[kempton mandeville]

hi peter:

thanks for the answer ... i had actually already found a
previous posting of yours and followed it

a couple of things
a header source

the header source in question was a word document, and was
updated and works fine.

My .dot for creating custom mail merge documents with a
custom toolbar was set up with only a header source and no
data source attached, and works fine. The user assigns the
data source.

I presume a document set up using the old MailMergeHelper
would work too. However, once a data source is attached
to the document, I don't find a way to get rid of it.

Thanks again for your help.

Kempton

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Thanks for the feedback - I'll have a look at this when I have a moment.

 

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Kempton,

However, once a data source is attached
to the document, I don't find a way to get rid of it.

The usual way would be to set the type of merge back to
"Normal document"...

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

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