Word could not parse your query options into a valid sql string

[Shannon]

I received a message when trying to query a mail merge document. "Word could not parse your query options into a valid sql string." The field is a default type field and I wanted "placement" to equal "Honorable Mention."

 

[Peter Jamieson]

A few questions:
a. which version of Word?
b. what is the data source? (Excel?)
c. are you entering the double quote marks around the text you want to
compare with? If so, leave them out.
d. does Word accept a comparison text if you just enter one word (i.e. no
spaces?)
e. does Word accept a comparison text if you just enter a number?
f. does your data source have either numbers or dates in the placement
column in the first few rows? If so, I would try to arrange that one of the
first 8 rows has text that is neither a number nor a date.

--
Peter Jamieson - Word MVP
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org/

I received a message when trying to query a mail merge document. "Word

could not parse your query options into a valid sql string." The field is
a default type field and I wanted "placement" to equal "Honorable Mention."

 

[Shannon]

Whoah! How do you know that stuff? Thank you. The answers were Word 2000 9.0.2720 with excel as the data source and no double quotes. I tried one word and it worked. I tried a number and it worked. Then I sorted in descending order, and at first had problems, until I saved as other names on both the word and excel documents (just to be safe). Voila! That did the trick. Thanks again. I've been slicing up spreadsheets and/or printing extra copies I don't need so I wouldn't have to wait for an answer here. Thanks for the quick response

Shannon