Word hangs saving new document after merge to access database

[Sandy]

This problem occurred after upgrading from Win 2000 to XP
professional. Tech at work is pretty good but has no
knowledge of Access. I work in a law firm.

What happens is this - I open my source (template) Word
document, and merge to a new document from an Access
database. When I go to save the new document, and the
source document is open, Word just hangs. If I close the
source (template) document prior to saving, it's fine.
Or if I copy and paste the merged document to a brand new
document, it also saves fine. This is a big pain, because
there are particular source documents I like to keep open
because I use them many many times during the day. It
seems that the link to Access is preserved to the new
document, and it wants to read every record I have. I've
left the thing hanging for hours to see if it
resolves.... but it doesn't. I should mention, we're on a
network, so the "save" function is saved to the network,
not to the native application. I can't override the
network software to see if it saves correctly just using
the native application. So the problem may be a
combination of the network software (Hummingbird) or a
combination. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Sandy,

Is the same version of WORD involved in both the "before"
and "after" scenarios? Which one?

Is any part of the mail merge you're doing (docs or data) in
a network location?

Are you actually opening the template (*.dot) file? Or
creating a new document from it? If you are doing the
former, and try the latter, instead, do you get different
behavior?

This problem occurred after upgrading from Win 2000 to XP
professional. Tech at work is pretty good but has no
knowledge of Access. I work in a law firm.

What happens is this - I open my source (template) Word
document, and merge to a new document from an Access
database. When I go to save the new document, and the
source document is open, Word just hangs. If I close the
source (template) document prior to saving, it's fine.
Or if I copy and paste the merged document to a brand new
document, it also saves fine. This is a big pain, because
there are particular source documents I like to keep open
because I use them many many times during the day. It
seems that the link to Access is preserved to the new
document, and it wants to read every record I have. I've
left the thing hanging for hours to see if it
resolves.... but it doesn't. I should mention, we're on a
network, so the "save" function is saved to the network,
not to the native application. I can't override the
network software to see if it saves correctly just using
the native application. So the problem may be a
combination of the network software (Hummingbird) or a
combination. Any suggestions?

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

 

[Sandy]

Its the same version of word in both scenarios. Although
the original template documents were created in Word 97,
about 2 years ago we upgraded to Word 2000 (with service
pak 2 and all the updates, but not service pak 3). At
that time the Operating System was Windows NT. About six
months ago we upgraded to XP professional and it was then
that the issue commenced.

All the template documents are stored on the Network (PC
DOCS) although I personally created them all and they are
all secure. So, I am actually opening the file, not
making a copy of it. So if a make a copy of it and save
as new document, then of course it doesn't preserve the
merge info, and I have to relink it to the database.
Behaves the same way.

The tech was here earlier today, and we by-passed PC
DOCS, ie the Network. I copied the template to the
desktop, completed the merge, and then and saved the new
document directly to Word on the desktop , and the
results were intermittent - ie sometimes it saved,
sometimes it hung.

Hope this is the info you require.

Look forward to your further input.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

One other thing. The database is on a different part of
the Network. Its not within PC DOCS (Hummingbird) the
database is on a different drive.
Since I am the creator of the database, Its me or the
Adminstrator (who dares not to touch it) have rights. My
assistant has rights to modify, add records, use it for
merge, etc, but not to alter the database itself.

Sandy.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Sandy

I'm not sure I follow all of the processes, here. You tend
to use the term "document" to mean any Word file; while for
me, documents and templates are completely different things,
with different attributes and behaviors. I'm also not clear
on what you mean when you use the term "copy" (more below).

At this point, all I can really do is make a number of
observations, and hope these lead you to a solution. (And if
you find one, I'd be grateful to learn about it, as this
question appears to be coming up more and more.)

1. As I just mentioned, this is apparently a problem that's
just starting to come up. Yours is the third or fourth
question I've seen along these lines in the last couple of
weeks.

2. Templates are NOT meant to be opened and worked with,
directly. One should create a NEW document from them and use
that. Note that I cannot reproduce the behavior you report,
but
- I can't reproduce the network environment you have
- one of the other problem reports similar to yours also
involved being network linked, and merging with a template

3. Therefore, I suspect the problem may lie in one, or a
combination, of the following circumstances
- using a template (*.dot) as the main merge document
(rather than a document *.doc)

- having the main merge document and/or the datasource
in a network location

- restrictive network permissions that may not be
allowing file locks to be released

- very possibly, a Registry key needs setting, in order
to provide sufficient permissions

This last I picked up a few months ago from a MS Tech
Support message. Again, I have no personal experience, but
in a number of cases, it has solved problems with database
linking (not the same as yours, however):

"this issue may occur if the following registry entries and
their sub-entries
were not set to Every-Full Control permission.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Access.Application
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Access.Application.10"

4. Note, also, that the problem may well be PC Docs
specific. Such a file management system does affect how Word
works with its documents. You may need to contact support
for PC Docs and discuss this with them.

One other thing. The database is on a different part of
the Network. Its not within PC DOCS (Hummingbird) the
database is on a different drive.
Since I am the creator of the database, Its me or the
Adminstrator (who dares not to touch it) have rights. My
assistant has rights to modify, add records, use it for
merge, etc, but not to alter the database itself.

Sandy.

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