I am trying to connect to a FileMaker Pro database to generate my data
source. I am using Word 2000 and 2003.
I can manually access the database, run a script that produces an export
text or merge file . What I would like to do is to somehow automate this
manual process. Thanks in advance of any help provided.

I am not sure anyone in here can tell you how to automate your Filemaker
script - you may need to ask in a Filemaker group somewhere.

However, I thought Filemaker Pro had an ODBC driver - if so, you may be able
to get the data "directly" from Word. Sometimes this is fairly
straightforward, and sometimes it is not. You could try the following:
a. find the ODBC Administrator in Control Panel - depending on your version
of Windows you'll probably find it in Control Panel itself, otherwise look
for Administrative Tools or "Performance and Maintenance", then
Administrative Tools.
b. Create a new User or System DSN. The ODBC tool pops up a list of the
available drivers. If there's a Filemaker one, select it, then look through
any configuration options available for that driver. If not, abandon this
approach!
c. In Word 2000, go throughthe process of opening a Data Source. When you
get to tthe Open Data Source dialog box, select your Filemaker Pro file,
then click the MS Query button. In Word 2003, the MS Query option is on the
Tools menu in the top right hand corner of the Select Data Source dialog
box. If MS Query has been installed (it's an option in MS Office/Word so it
may not have been installed) you will then see a seqeunce of dialog boxes
allowing you to select the DSN you created in (b), select a specific table,
and so on. At a certain point you get to "Edit the query in MS Query" or
"Return the data to Word". If you use the first option, you can manipulate
the query and, if you like, save it as a .dqy file, which I would recommend
as it makes it easier to modify later. Eventually, you need to choose the
Return Data to Microsoft Word option on the File menu.

MS Query really just sets up the query. After that, Word goes directly to
the data source (via ODBC) without involving MS Query, unless you specify
the .dqy file you saved as the data source, in which case things work a
little differently. Unfortunately, sometimes everything works the first time
through but the next time you open the document Word says it can't find or
open the data source. When that happens, it is generally because Word has
recorded the necessary connection details wrongly and you generally have to
go into Word VBA and create an OpenDataSource call that gets it right.

FWIW I'm away for a while so cannot follow up on this one, but it may be
worth trying.

Peter Jamieson
"newbie" wrote in message
...
I am trying to connect to a FileMaker Pro database to generate my data
source. I am using Word 2000 and 2003.
I can manually access the database, run a script that produces an export
text or merge file . What I would like to do is to somehow automate this
manual process. Thanks in advance of any help provided.