Access 2007 to Word 2007 mail merge 1

[medric2]

Starting the merge from Access I get as far as opening the existing Word document. When this is open a "confirm datasource" dialogue box opens with one choice in it - OLE DB database files. Clicking OK on this brings up a "mail merge wizard" error box saying "Word was unable to open the data source".

I have found a "work-around" for this which obviously should not be becessary. The work around is as follows.
In the "confirm datasource" dialogue box I check the "show all" box and choose the MS Access Database via ODBC (*.mdb,accdb). This gives me an error box "ODBC Microsoft Access Driver Login Failed" and tells me it "could not find file c:\documents and settings\dave.jones\my documents.mdb". This is not the name of my database!. I OK the error and it brings up a login box where I click the database button and choose the right database. This gives me a "select database" dialogue box which again has the wrong database selected. Changing this to the correct database from the dropdown box and then clicking "options" and checking all four boxes finally allows me to select the query I need.
From here the mail merge works OK.
I have duplicated this on three computers but a web search has not found anyone else with the problem.
Can anyone help please?

 

[fneily]

Should be posted in one of the seven Access forums.
Most mail merges start from Word. You might want to try that.
Steps from Access:
Select the table you want to use as source. Make sure it's close.
On the External Data Tab, click More and choose Merge It With Microsoft Office Word.
Verify that the Link Your Data To An Existing Microsoft Word Document is selected. Click OK.
Navigate to the folder of your document. Select it. Open it.
In the document window, in the Mail Merge task pane, verify that the Use An Existing List option is selected.
Click the Next: Write Your Letter link.
etc.

Here's a reference:
Use mail merge to create and print letters and other documents

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100819761033.aspx

Also, you can do "mail merges" in Access. Create your letter as an Access Report. You can use textboxes to format your letter, eg. the control source would look like: ="Dear " & [Fname] & " :"
Then click the Detail line, bring up the properties sheet and on Force New Page make After Section. Makes multiple letters without using Word.

 

[medric2]

Thanks for the reply fneily. I'll repost in the access forum. I forgot to mention that I did try initiating the merge from Word and got the same error.