This is a recurrent problem. When attempting to select mail merge recipients,
I get either "Word could not parse your query options into a valid SQL
string" or "Word could not merge the main document with the data source
because the data records were empty or no data records matched your query
options"

I know the latter is wrong, as when looking at the data I can SEE at least
one item that matches my query options.

As I know next to nothing about SQL, or what Parsing might be, I don't know
where to proceed from here.

From my research, I know that apostrophes and wild cards can cause problems
with merging. We use niether here.

Any help will be appreciated.

See if - http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=825765 helps.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org


Russ wrote:
This is a recurrent problem. When attempting to select mail merge
recipients, I get either "Word could not parse your query options
into a valid SQL string" or "Word could not merge the main document
with the data source because the data records were empty or no data
records matched your query options"

I know the latter is wrong, as when looking at the data I can SEE at
least one item that matches my query options.

As I know next to nothing about SQL, or what Parsing might be, I
don't know where to proceed from here.

From my research, I know that apostrophes and wild cards can cause
problems with merging. We use niether here.

Any help will be appreciated.

I followed the instructions in the link you supplied, and while it worked as
far as removing the introductory dialogue box, it didnt resolve my original
problem. Even with the changes in place, I'm still having issues getting Word
to merge in certain circumstances.

Here's a little additional information:
We're attempting to print form letters, filtering by letter date and letter
type. This throws up an error. If I filter the same information by letter
type and then letter date, it seems to work just fine. The only difference I
can tell between the two methods is that when sorting by date, you have to go
into the advanced filter panel and type in the date, whereas the other method
is accomplished through only drop-down menus.

Thanks again