WORD XP MAIL-MERGE - FAILS - USING ACCESS QUERY

[SueMackay]

I suddenly have a problem mail-merging labels and letters in WORD from an
ACCESS Database. I am guessing it is an incompatible problem but I just
can't seem to fix it - any ideas would be really appreciated. I can get
round the problem by exporting from Access to Excel then merging into Word
- but of course that is a bit crazy - and the records are not "up-to-date"
from the latest Query. I have also "Googled" the problem to no avail.

I was using Word 2000 and Access 2000 - during that time - the Access
database (with just under 1,000 records) merged beautifully with Word -
and I have lots of documents saved in Word with "permanent" links to
certain Queries - so that I can print out labels and sometimes merge
letters.

I have recently upgraded to Office XP and am up-to-date with all the
patches(and come to think about it - also 'successfully' downloaded SP2 for
Windows XP Home too). I have tried my database converted from Access 2000 to
Access 2002 (which apparently 'is' XP) and I have also retained the database
in the 2000 format - but either way.....
Now I have a problem - HOWEVER, all my original mail-merged Word documents
still work successfully (thank goodness) - its only brand new mail-merges
that I create which go wrong........

Any new mail-merge I attempt now - ends up with the recipients list
"empty" - I either get a warning saying the "data records were empty"
and/or "no recipients were found because the list was empty" - when all
the time - the various Queries I have tried linking to - definitely have
records in them - and they successfully Export to Excel and in fact a
Label Report within Access itself works fine too.

So it is somehow Word not reading the Query successfully I guess. The only
thing I can see as different comparing a "new" unsuccessful merge with an
"old" successful mail-merge is that if I look at the Mail-merge Wizard in
Word XP - the successful OLD version states it is using:
"database name" QUERY query-name

whereas the new style states:
[query-name] in "database-name"
(showing query name first - yet not mentioning the word QUERY as above).

But I've no idea whether I can ever change that?
Has anyone else experienced these problems? has anyone an idea?
Sue


I suddenly have a problem mail-merging labels and letters in WORD from an
ACCESS Database. I am guessing it is an incompatible problem but I just
can't seem to fix it - any ideas would be really appreciated. I can get
round the problem by exporting from Access to Excel then merging into Word
- but of course that is a bit crazy - and the records are not "up-to-date"
from the latest Query. I have also "Googled" the problem to no avail.

I was using Word 2000 and Access 2000 - during that time - the Access
database (with just under 1,000 records) merged beautifully with Word -
and I have lots of documents saved in Word with "permanent" links to
certain Queries - so that I can print out labels and sometimes merge
letters.

I have recently upgraded to Office XP and am up-to-date with all the
patches(and come to think about it - also 'successfully' downloaded SP2 for
Windows XP Home too). I have tried my database converted from Access 2000 to
Access 2002 (which apparently 'is' XP) and I have also retained the database
in the 2000 format - but either way.....
Now I have a problem - HOWEVER, all my original mail-merged Word documents
still work successfully (thank goodness) - its only brand new mail-merges
that I create which go wrong........

Any new mail-merge I attempt now - ends up with the recipients list
"empty" - I either get a warning saying the "data records were empty"
and/or "no recipients were found because the list was empty" - when all
the time - the various Queries I have tried linking to - definitely have
records in them - and they successfully Export to Excel and in fact a
Label Report within Access itself works fine too.

So it is somehow Word not reading the Query successfully I guess. The only
thing I can see as different comparing a "new" unsuccessful merge with an
"old" successful mail-merge is that if I look at the Mail-merge Wizard in
Word XP - the successful OLD version states it is using:
"database name" QUERY query-name

whereas the new style states:
[query-name] in "database-name"
(showing query name first - yet not mentioning the word QUERY as above).

But I've no idea whether I can ever change that?
Has anyone else experienced these problems? has anyone an idea?
Sue

 

[Beth Melton]

They changed the method used to connect to an Access database in Word
2002. Instead of the DDE method it now uses OLE DB by default.

To select the method used, in Word go to Tools/Options/General and
turn on "Confirm Conversions at Open". Then select your Access
database again for your data source. When prompted select the DDE
method and see if that resolves the issue.

Additionally, regarding Access XP vs. Access 2002. The Office suite is
called Office XP. The individual applications in the suite are called
2002, such as Word 2002 and Access 2002.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

I suddenly have a problem mail-merging labels and letters in WORD
from an
ACCESS Database. I am guessing it is an incompatible problem but I
just
can't seem to fix it - any ideas would be really appreciated. I can
get
round the problem by exporting from Access to Excel then merging
into Word
- but of course that is a bit crazy - and the records are not
"up-to-date"
from the latest Query. I have also "Googled" the problem to no
avail.

I was using Word 2000 and Access 2000 - during that time - the
Access
database (with just under 1,000 records) merged beautifully with
Word -
and I have lots of documents saved in Word with "permanent" links to
certain Queries - so that I can print out labels and sometimes merge
letters.

I have recently upgraded to Office XP and am up-to-date with all the
patches(and come to think about it - also 'successfully' downloaded
SP2 for
Windows XP Home too). I have tried my database converted from Access
2000 to
Access 2002 (which apparently 'is' XP) and I have also retained the
database
in the 2000 format - but either way.....
Now I have a problem - HOWEVER, all my original mail-merged Word
documents
still work successfully (thank goodness) - its only brand new
mail-merges
that I create which go wrong........

Any new mail-merge I attempt now - ends up with the recipients list
"empty" - I either get a warning saying the "data records were
empty"
and/or "no recipients were found because the list was empty" - when
all
the time - the various Queries I have tried linking to - definitely
have
records in them - and they successfully Export to Excel and in fact
a
Label Report within Access itself works fine too.

So it is somehow Word not reading the Query successfully I guess.
The only
thing I can see as different comparing a "new" unsuccessful merge
with an
"old" successful mail-merge is that if I look at the Mail-merge
Wizard in
Word XP - the successful OLD version states it is using:
"database name" QUERY query-name

whereas the new style states:
[query-name] in "database-name"
(showing query name first - yet not mentioning the word QUERY as
above).

But I've no idea whether I can ever change that?
Has anyone else experienced these problems? has anyone an idea?
Sue