Word 97-Can no longer establish DDE link to Access for MailMerge

[Dor100]

I have a button on an Access 97 db which opens a Word 97 mail merge doc. There is no longer a data source for the doc, and I can't re-establish it, whether I try starting from Access with the merge wizard or from Word with the MailMerge Helper. I cannot establish any DDE link at all.

I suspect there could be a missing DLL or other file from the copy of Office we run from a shared netword drive, but I have no way of knowing which. Does any one know which DLL or similar files might be missing? Every other feature works fine. Are there any other likely causes or solutions?

 

[MOUSUSER]

This apparently is a common Microsoft problem.

Open the word 97 document and choose

Tools/Mail Merge/Get Data/Open Data Source

In the Open Date Source box there is a check box down towards the bottom right named Select Method. Put a tick in this box and then click on Open.

You will then be prompted with a box and you should choose the appropriate option. It depends on what you have installed on your machine to what options you are offered but the two most common are DDE or ODBC. I can't say which you are using but try one or the other and you should find the link should be re-established.

 

[Dor100]

I used to be able to solve the problem that way, but now I can no longer even get the Open Data Source box at all. The software just stalls and eventually gives an error message about no longer being able to re-establish a DDE link.

I'm stumped. I wonder if there's a missing DLL file that governs DDE or something. Thanks for trying.

 

[Dor100]

This worked completely:

Run Office Setup: select Remove All of Office. Then,

Run Setup again: reinstall Office (if originally running Office from a network server, keep that option).

Must not choose the option to simply Reinstall missing components for the first step; must Remove All.