"Word cannot find its database" Problem

[Michael]

We have many Microsoft Word documents that are "mail merge" documents. We always had these files "associated" with a specific database and whenever we used to open the Word mail merge document, the database was always attached (we previously had Office XP).

We have now upgraded to Office 2003 and all computers in our office get the following problem. When they open a Word 2003 mail merge document, they receive a dialog box requesting them to "Select Data Source". In order to use the Word mail merge document, you must then manually locate the database file, then you can do your mail merge. When we exit the Word mail merge document, we save the document believing that it will "remember" the database connection. However, the next time you start the same Word mail merge document, it will again request you to "Select Data Source".

This is very annoying and time consuming. Can someone help us figure out the solution to this problem? Thank you in advance!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Although your problem looks different, I wonder whether the underlying cause
might be Word's new security check on the data source - basically, if it
thinks it's going to have to execute SQL (which is "almost always" when the
document is a mail merge main document), Word will pop up a dialog box when
the user opens a mail merge main document.

When you are opening the document programmatically, Word will just discard
the mailmerge datasource without warning (and you may see that referencing
WdDoc.MailMerge.DataSource.QueryString will probably generate an error)
/unless/ you use (say)

WdApp.DisplayAlerts = wdAlertsMessageBox

in which case the user is prompted when the document opens.

I'm wondering whether this would occur in some cases if DisplayAlerts has
been set to wdAlertsNone at some point and the user opens the document
manually.

There's more about this at

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;825765


--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP

We have many Microsoft Word documents that are "mail merge" documents. We

always had these files "associated" with a specific database and whenever we
used to open the Word mail merge document, the database was always attached
(we previously had Office XP).

We have now upgraded to Office 2003 and all computers in our office get

the following problem. When they open a Word 2003 mail merge document, they
receive a dialog box requesting them to "Select Data Source". In order to
use the Word mail merge document, you must then manually locate the database
file, then you can do your mail merge. When we exit the Word mail merge
document, we save the document believing that it will "remember" the
database connection. However, the next time you start the same Word mail
merge document, it will again request you to "Select Data Source".

This is very annoying and time consuming. Can someone help us figure out

the solution to this problem? Thank you in advance!