Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your detailed comments. Please see my responses
inline below...

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:03:28 +0200, Cindy M -WordMVP-
wrote:

Hi Kenneth,

Do you always use the same header file, or is this problem
happening with a different header file from when things work
properly?

The problem started with a new header file. (more later)


I assume we're talking about delimited text files as the
merge source. What are the field and record delimiters?

Field delimiter: tab, Record delimiter: Enter


Does this file contain more fields than you'd usually use?

Yes, typically, I use 7 or 8, this new one has 18.


Are you certain the field names in the header file are valid
(no spaces, no apostrophes, etc.)?

Yup.


If you open both the header file and the data file in Word,
copy the headers to the top of the data file, and save as a
Word document (still in delimited text format) then link to
that as the data source: do you see anything different?

No, same problem.


I run Word 2000 with Win 2000 Pro.

I have used Word's mail-merge functionality many times, and
am quite familiar with it.

Typically, I use a pre-defined header file.

Now, for some reason I am having the following problem:

I open a new DOC, click to start the Mail-Merge process.
Define the active window as the formletter, define the data
file and the header file. (Both are valid and display
properly in the window that asks for the delimiters...)

Then, Word tells me that I have no merge fields defined,
but, when I click to insert a field, nothing happens: The
"Insert Merge Field" button does not appear to depress, and
no dropdown appears.

This has happened several times though I have closed, then
re-launched Word.


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun
8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Because of the above, I started from scratch:

I created a new data file with just 5 fields and a few
records. The results are exactly the same, that is, clicking
on the button to insert merge fields does nothing.

I have run the Detect & Repair routine to conclusion.

I will add that the merge function still works, that is, my
existing macros using merge print properly, but I cannot
seem to create a new merge document.

I will also mention that for this new attempt, both the data
file, and the header file were TXT files. But, for my
experimentation described above, I have created both TXT
files for each, DOCS for each, and have also tried a single
DOC using the first record as the "header." Again, all to no
avail.

Thanks again for any further thoughts,
--
Kenneth

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