Word and Access 2007 Mail Merge Problem

[Melynda E.]

I am creating a mail merge in Word using data pulled from an Access query.
Once I select this query as my recipient list, I receive an error message
"unable to open data source." I've checked other posts to solve the problems
(checked the version of each file and have confirmed the file format
conversion on open). I had it working, but realized a field needed to be
added to my query. The query was then updated, the merge would not work and
the error message was received again. I went back to the query and removed
the newly added field and tried it again....same error message. I do have a
few fields where the user can select multiple data items, do you think this
could be causing all of this?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I do have a
few fields where the user can select multiple data items, do you think
this
could be causing all of this?

It's possible, but the small tests I have done suggest that these fields
(you do mean the multivalue lookup type fields?) do not seem to prevent
connection in themselves.

But when you say this...

(checked the version of each file and have confirmed the file format
conversion on open).

presumably that is because you need to use DDE - if so,
a. what's in your query that needs a DDE connection? Is it a parameter
query?
b. Access 2007 seems to work rather differently with DDE than previous
versions, e.g. you probably don't see the new version of a query until you
close/re-open the Word document and/or the database. But perhaps I am
misremembering.

 

[Melynda E.]

I had opened the file format converter based on other advice seen on this
forum for other users. Perhaps its not the best for my database, which is
part of what I'm hoping to find here. My query doesn't have any parameters
set at this time as I'm in the early stages of development wanted to make
sure this method of mail merge would work. Do you think I should try posting
this problem in the Access area?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As far as I know with WOrd 2007 you can use OLE DB, ODBC, or DDE (and if you
specify an Access 2007 .accdb database rather than the older .mdb, then you
are only presented with the OLE DB option, although the others may work. I
wasn't aware of another method for Access (there's an obsolescent one for
Excel). So
a. do you mean one of OLEDB/ODBC/DDE or
b. are you exporting the data from Access first?

If (b), do you really need to do that?