Word hangs during merge

[Pedrom]

Doing a Word\Excel mailmerge in Office 2000. When entering the Excel data
file, Word will hang with 'initiating DDE link with Microsoft Excel' at the
bottom of the screen.

Ths same merge will work on other machines.

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance,

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?UGVkcm9t?=,

Doing a Word\Excel mailmerge in Office 2000. When entering the Excel data
file, Word will hang with 'initiating DDE link with Microsoft Excel' at the
bottom of the screen.

Ths same merge will work on other machines.

There's very little you can do (other than reinstalling Windows and the rest
of the software). There are articles on microsoft.com about not being able to
establish DDE links, but they mostly summarize to "that's the way it is, tough
luck"

WD2000: ErrMsg: "Word could not re-establish a DDE connection to <Application>
to complete the current task."
http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=224048

The only thing you can control, which COULD be a factor (but usually isn't) is
to check that DDE isn't being locked out by Excel, itself:
Tools/Options/General/Ignore other applications needs to be UNchecked.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Pedrom]

Thanks for your reply Cindy. I browsed MS KB for some time and the Internet,
without success. However I have found the answer.

I deleted the local (..of roaming) profile. This must have been corrupt. All
is OK now.

Cheer's

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?UGVkcm9t?=,

I deleted the local (..of roaming) profile. This must have been corrupt. All
is OK now.

thanks for reporting back

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Jeff G]

I too have just had this problem happen to me - all mail merge word 2000 docs
will no longer connect to excel or access using dde. I have no idea what
caused this - just started a few weeks ago. I have search MS KB and this
community and verified all settings, but no luck. You mention "I deleted the
local (..of roaming) profile. This must have been corrupt. All is OK now.".
which profile are you referring too - XP user account? I hope this will fix
my problem.

Your reply would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

 

[Jeff G]

I did a complete re-install of Office 2000, and now DDE works (doing
reinstall-repair did not fix problem). Now just a question of how long this
will work before it breaks again. I guess I better switch over my merges to
use something other than DDE? Pretty sad that this highly used way of
working is so unstable.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?SmVmZiBH?=,

I did a complete re-install of Office 2000, and now DDE works (doing
reinstall-repair did not fix problem). Now just a question of how long this
will work before it breaks again. I guess I better switch over my merges to
use something other than DDE? Pretty sad that this highly used way of
working is so unstable.

Yes, MS has a sad history of abandoning perfectly good technology because
they're following the path of some new development. With time, the customer base
forgets that something else/better ever existed...

My personal preference for version compatibility/reliability is ODBC. The only
drawback with this (or any other connection method) is that it doesn't pick up
any of the numeric or date formatting from the original file. With Access that's
not such an insurmountable problem, as one can define a query with the desired
formats. The solution isn't as simple for Excel, meaning you could be spending a
lot more time adding formatting switches to the merge fields in the merge
documents.

If you have datasources/worksheets you use repeatedly, with new main merge
documents, it would make sense to create sets of AutoText entries for the merge
fields you use a lot. Add them to the mailmerge toolbar (or your own
supplemental merge toolbar) so that you can access them quickly.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[ANorth]

I've been struggling with this also; from Jeff G's posts I did the complete
re-install of Office 2000 also; but no luck. (My system is XP)

On another thread "Mail merge and fax", I had posted my question and Peter
Jamieson suggested saving to different versions. Before attempting to create
the merge/form letter, I saved as: "Word 97-2000 & 6.0/95-RTF". This solved
the problem for me. I believe the hang up comes with Word 2000 and 2003.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?QU5vcnRo?=,

On another thread "Mail merge and fax", I had posted my question and Peter
Jamieson suggested saving to different versions. Before attempting to create
the merge/form letter, I saved as: "Word 97-2000 & 6.0/95-RTF". This solved
the problem for me. I believe the hang up comes with Word 2000 and 2003.

OK, in this case the problem was likely damaged internal file structures. Glad
you're back in business

-- Cindy Meister