Thank you, Cindy, I didn't know about that setting; that helps! However, it
would appears that I need to recreate my Word merge file in order to get the
DDE select prompt; is that true?
--
Marv Lusk
Boise Corporation


"Cindy M -WordMVP-" wrote:

Hi ?B?TWFydkluQm9pc2U=?=,

In Office2003, I cannot open and edit my Excel database that I have linked to
a Word document in mail merge; it opens as read-only. I previously could
open/edit/save and then simply rerun my merge in Word. Is there a workaround
to this feature, or am I missing something?

When you say "previously", you mean with Word 2000 or earlier?

Word 2002/2003 defaults to a different connection method. The old method, DDE,
actually opened the Excel file in Excel and carried on a communication with the
application. So it was no problem editing and merging at the same time.

Word 2002/2003 uses the technology OLE DB, and this puts a file lock on the
database so that you can't "mess it up" while Word is using it.

In order to use DDE, instead, you have to activate "Confirm conversions on open"
in Tools/Options/General. Then, after selecting the Excel file, you should be
able to choose DDE.

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

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