[Beth Melton]

Strange. I don't encounter this -- it works like previous versions for me. I
can edit the Excel data and am prompted to save the changes when I close the
main document.

Are you saving in the old file format or new file format? Are you using
Windows XP or Vista?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton

What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I finally gave it a try and re-created the data base Excel, as you asked me
to do below. What happens is when I use a quick button to edit a field
during a merge I get a window that asks me if I "want to break the link"
with
the file. With no other options I say yes. It seems to complie for about
30
seconds then asks me to save the word document in my database directory,
which I do not understand? This is all too tedious and time consuming.

BTW this tmp process is also affecting me when I email a file through
outlook and then I try to move the file within explorer. It says I cannot
move the file because the file is being used by another program. Even
though
outlook may have sent the file I have to close outlook then move the file.
.tmp files are my enemy, lol.

Thanks for all your help.
"Beth Melton" wrote:

Yes, additional information is always helpful. :-)

Instead of changing the method you are using to connect to your data, I
would copy/paste the data in your data file to an Excel workbook and use
it
instead. I've verified it can be updated in Word 2007 and you might find
managing your data in Excel to be more flexible than using a Word table.

All you have to do is create a new Excel workbook, open your data file in
Word, select the entire table, then in Excel make sure the active cell is
A1
and paste the copied data. Save and close your Excel workbook. Then in
your
main document, on the Mailings tab, click Select Recipients/Use Existing
List and select your saved Excel workbook.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I orginally created my data base using Office 2000 and Word. It was the
old
merge tool bar drop down, not a wizard, so my data base is a word
document.
I now have office 2007 and Word that goes with it, I am still using the
Word
2000 data base file as my source. Does this help?

"Beth Melton" wrote:

I believe this has more to do with the data connection to your
database
than
temp files. Word now uses a new method, (called OLEDB), by default to
connect to a data source for mail merge. Word 2000 uses a method
called
DDE.. In a nut shell, this connection allows Word to communicate
directly
with your data file (which is more efficient) rather than through the
application as it did in the past using a DDE connection method. The
fact
that your database may be opening as read-only may indeed be a bug. (I
don't
know, this isn't something I've investigated.)

What you might be able to do is use the DDE method to connect to your
data
source which may allow you to make your edits and save them. However,
we
need to know the version of Word you are using so we can provide you
with
the necessary steps.

"Dave" wrote in message
...
Thank you all for replying. My situation is when I open a merge
document
and
use my Word based data base it opens a .tmp file. If I edit the
data
base,
which word allows and has qucik buttons to do it by during the
merge,
and
then close the template I cannot save the changed data base file
because
it
says it is open. The error is that it is a read only file, which it
is
not.
It is just that Word created a .tmp file so it thinks it open
somewhere
else.
So I have to close without saving changes, a real pain for my
application
plus I cannot use features Word has to offer.

This did not happen in Word 2000 and the folks on the Merge help
page
said
it is a know problem, they thought it might get fixed sometime. I
was
looking for a near term solution.