I think there are two main possible problems he
a. you may only be able to connect programmatically and
b. you may actually need to use the Access/Jet driver (which typically
works for older .dbf format files, whereas the FoxPro driver is for more
recent FoxPro formats), and since it isn't installed by default in the
version of the MDAC (data access) that comes with Win 2003 you may have to
install it.

I would try the following.

If you have Excel, see if you can open the DBF in Excel using the FoxPro
driver. If you cannot, you almost certainly need to install the Jet stuff
that used to be part of the MDAC. You can probably find the right version
for Win 2003 at

by following the "Product and Update Downloads" link at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/downloads/default.aspx

If you can open the DBF in Excel, it suggests that Word ought to be able to
use the FoxPro driver. I would proceeed as follows:

Follow the instructions in this Knowledgebase article:

"Opening This Will Run the Following SQL Command" Message When You Open a
Word Document"

at

http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=825765

See if that makes any difference on its own (I doubt it, but it's worth a
try)

Then, if possible, try opening the data source in VBA code using the FoxPro
driver. An example of the syntax you need for a .dbf with a FoxPro ODBC
User/System DSN is

ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:="", _
Connection:="DSN=Visual FoxPro Tables;SourceType=DBF;" & _
"SourceDB=c:\fp;Deleted=No;Exclusive=No;", _
SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM 'mytable'", _
Subtype:=wdMergeSubTypeWord2000

where "Visual FoxPro Tables" is the name of the ODBC DSN, c:\fp is the
folder containing the .dbf, and the .dbf is called mytable.dbf. You may
need backquotes ` instead of straight quotes ' around the table name.


That's my best guess, anyway.

Peter Jamieson

"HD" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Last week, I got an answer to my problem from Brenda(by the way, thank
you!)
that for my mail merge to work with a DBF datasource, I needed to install
the WDVFPDSN.exe.
I did that, but it still does not work...
When I try to open the datasource, it gives me a little window where I
need
to confirm the datasource... I have tried all the choices... and I just
get
the same error: "Word was unable to open the data source".

Here is a reminder of the problem:
The Technical Dept has changed our application server(the merge works on
our
old machine)... This new server has
Windows Server 2003 (Standard edition) and Office XP, SP3.
I have a word document that needs to merge to a DBF file on this new
machine... When I try to do the merge, the system gives me the message:
"Word was unable to open the datasource."

I have installed the VFPODBC.msi as well as the WDVFPDSN.exe...

Please help me, anyone.

H. Dumas