Mail Merge to Access 97 suddenly lost its link

[LesDes]

I have been using Word for many years to mail merge some Word docs using a table in Access 97.

Neither the docs nor the Access database have changed in years.

Started as Office 97 and currently using Word 2003.

Since the last use a month or two ago, when I now open the Word doc I get a pop-up "Opening this document will run the following SQL command .... Do you want to continue?"

I click Yes

Next pop-up: "... Word cannot find its data source ...."

I then try and navigate to the source and get a "not authorised" error which I know is not true and the loop repeats.

I tried this on two machines - both same results. One is running XP and the other W7-64 bit. Both with up to date patches.

I then went to an old PC running W2000 and Word 2000 and it all worked fine as normal.

Any idea what has happened? Looks to me like maybe a security update has broken something. Thanks.

 

[macropod]

Hi Les,

With all the systems you tried the mailmerge on, did you use the same files, or just the versions of those files that those systems might already have had?

If you tested the same mailmerge document on all PCs, what were the details of the "not authorised" error?

If you tested different versions of the mailmerge document, it may be that the document on the later machines has become corrupt - it happens sometimes. In that case, you could simply copy the file from the Win 2000 PC to the newer ones. Alternatively, if there have been significant changes to the mailmerge document, wWhat you could try is to insert a new empty paragraph at the end of that document, then copy & paste everything except that new last paragraph into a new document (which you will need to reconfigure as a mailmerge document).


Cheers
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[LesDes]

Thank you for the response.

All the files (doc and database) are on a separate server (I did try a local copy of the Access database with the same result.

The way it has worked in the past is:

1. I open the Access database.
2. I open the document. It finds the open database and shows the doc with the details from the first record.
3. I then run the mail merge.

Now at step 2 the doc does not open. Instead I get a pop-up
"Opening this document will run the following SQL command: SELECT * FROM [Certificates] ... Do you want to continue?"

So this is the first problem. This pop-up is new. I can only think it is a result of some security update to Word 2003 that now warns of the pending link to the database table.

I click Yes. Next pop-up: "docname.doc is a mail merge document. Word cannot find its data source \\server\....mdb".

This is the next problem. The file is there - I just opened the database manually. Also it should recognise that the database is already open.

Proceeding down the route to re-link to the data, it fails. At this stage I do not think it relevant to document that as the primary problem is this new pop-up at step 2 and the inability to find the existing data.

I did a test again on the W2K PC that does work, and that works fine as long as the Access data is first opened manually. If it is not open already then Word gives an “not authorised” message rather than a not found message (I think I understand why – not relevant to here).
To recap – the operations on all three PCs are identical with the data coming from a server.

 

[LesDes]

I just installed Access 97 and Word 2003 in an XP VM and tried this out before installing any security updates.

Got the same problem. So I must conclude that this is in fact a Word 2003 and Access 97 compatability problem. These files were actually used on my wife's XP machine and what must have happened is that I installed Word 2003 instead of Word 97. I have no recollection of that but it could well have happened.

I will replace Word 2003 with Word 97 and see what happens.

 

[LesDes]

Installed Word 97 in the VM and behold it all works.

So apologies for the misinformation.

It does seem to be an incompatibility between A97 and Word 2003

 

[macropod]

Hi Les,

I'd suggest updating the Db file format to the later version. And, in Word 2003 & later, you probably should not have the DB open when trying to run the mailmerge - the mailmerge main document will try to open the DB of it's own accord. The fact you've already got the DB open may be the cause of the error message ...


Cheers
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[LesDes]

Thanks. I will do that. It is a miracle it has run till now with all the changes that have taken place over the last 10+ years.