Can you tell me where the path to the data source is saved when I do the
following:
1. In the document, either completely or partially, either in clear text if
you save as .rtf, .xml or .htm, or in Word's binary format (actually it may
be a readable Unicode string - I don't know) if you save as .doc. The string
will be saved either in the connection string, or in the SQLStatement, or
split across the two, depending on how Word chose to make the connection (it
may choose to use OLE DB or its converter, and just possibly ODBC, depending
on the file).
2. the pathname may also be saved in various "recently accessed files" type
lists, e.g. in the Windows registry, but that's just my guess.
In the scenario you describe I would expect any such info to be stored in a
DSN, .udl or .odc file
Also, could you tell me if any data source information is stored in my
Windows XP user profile?
I'm not sure if the above answers your question. However, when you save a
mailmerge main doc. you /may find that data source info. is cached in the
..doc. If you save as .htm I think it looks more as if enough info. to
identify individaully selected records is stored (more or less).
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Mike DiCanio" wrote in message
...
Peter,
Can you tell me where the path to the data source is saved when I do the
following:
. With my merge document open in Word 2003 I click Letters and Mailings
on
the Tools menu, and then click Mail Merge.
In the Select recipients section of the Mail Merge Wizard (Step 3 of 6), I
select the Data Source by browsing to the location of the this .txt file
on
my network drive then click through the next steps and save the document.
Also, could you tell me if any data source information is stored in my
Windows XP user profile?
Thanks!
Mike
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
As far as I know, the main reasons why Word may have difficulty
/re-/opening
a data source are
a. In Word 2002 there is a problem where the data source is lost if you
apply a filter or sort criteria to your data source. This may have been
fixed in a later SP, and I believe was fixed in Word 2003.
b. the connection information saved by Word when you close a working
mail
merge main document is truncated in such a way that Word loses essential
information about the location of the data source
For example, by default Word 2002 and later use OLE DB providers to open
as
many types of data source as possible, including Excel worksheets, Access
databases and plain text files. The OLE DB provider typically divides the
location of a data source into a "database" and a "table". So for
example,
if the data source is...
a. ...an Access table, the "database" is the Access .mdb file that
contains
all the data, and the table is a table or query within that .mdb
b. ...a text file, the "database" is the Windows folder that contains
the
text file, and the .txt file itself is the "table"
c. ...an Excel worksheet, the "database" is the Excel workbook, and the
"table" is a worksheet, a named range, or perhaps a range specified in
R1C1
format.
An application such as Word that uses OLE DB to get data usually
specifies
the database part of the data source's locatoin in a /Connection string/,
and specifies the "table" part either simply by naming the table, or
specifying a SQL query that names the table.
So what goes wrong in Word? Well, Word constructs a connection string
containing whatever path name is required to specify the "database", and
uses it to open the document. But then when you save the Word document,
it
truncates the connection string to 255 characters long. If the pathname
of
the database file or folder is so long that it spans that 255 boundary,
Word
in effect forgets where the database it.
What can you do about it? Well, unfortunately, you cannot shorten the
connection string by leaving out unnecessary information. Word always
includes certain properties even when they are not strictly necessary. So
the only things you can do are
a. use another method to make the connection (and every method has its
drawbacks - see e.g. http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm for a discussion
of
some of the issues surrounding connections to Excel files, for example)
b. give your data source a shorter name, or put it in a folder with a
shorter pathname, depending on exactly what typ eof data source it is.
There can in theory be other problems that would cause this problem, but
in
most of those cases you would be unlikely to connect at all.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Mike DiCanio" wrote in message
...
Sorry no it is not. Word 2003.
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
Is this also Word 2007?
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Mike DiCanio" wrote in
message
...
I am having the same problem as all of you. I receive the error
"Word
cannot
find the source ". My files are on the network and have long
descriptive
file names. Please let me know if there is any further information
on
this
from your experiences.
Thanks.
Mike
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
Wen you have managed to open it, use Tools-Addins and Templates to
have
a
look.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Jane" wrote in message
...
do you mean connected to a .dot file? How would I find out if it
is?
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document
is
not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the
same
one)
attached.
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Jane" wrote in message
...
I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network
drives
too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it
does
not
appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit
stuck.
If you are able to test the same document and mail merge
source
on
a
much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that
would
help
establish that it is probably something to do with the
network
setup.
I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for
the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to
both
the
share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads
the
data
source).
--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
"Jane" wrote in message
...
1. The two files are in the same folder on a network
drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl
clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts
"Peter Jamieson" wrote:
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.