I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive, i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text file
converter).
A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or shorter than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total length
consists of all the charaters in
\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext
c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Jane" wrote in message
...
I'm having a very similar problem.
In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with the
correct data source attached.
Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with
the
new data source saves fine.
It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a network
drive - or is it the path?
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.
However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess, but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the file
using its converter.
Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname I
think it will always work.
However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that for
now.
Peter Jamieson
wrote in message
ps.com...
Hi,
I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.
The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.
I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.
I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.
The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.
If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:
[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"
If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:
"test.csv"
But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:
[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"
It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.
Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?
Thanks!