I was able to replicate some aspects of this problem as follows:
a. create an Excel source with 3 columns
b. create a Word mail merge main document and select the excel sheet
as the data source
c. using query options to sort on columns 2 and 3
d. save and close the Word file
e. rename column 3 and save and close the Excel sheet
f. re-open the Word document.
At that point I get the message you see. I would guess it is the same
for Word data sources. Then Word "cannot find" its data source. However,
at that point I was able to locate the data source manually. Word had
removed /all/ sort info. So I am not sure which particular problem you
are encountering. Is it:
a. you simply cannot open the Word document, so you cannot fix it?
b. you can open the Word document, but you cannot connect /any/ data
source?
c. you can connect a data source but you really need to know what the
sort sequence was, and that info is already lost?
d. you can do everything you need but when you close and re-open the
Word document, you get the same problem al over again
e. something else...?
If it's (b) or (d), I would suggest that you use the Data Merge Manager
to Restore the mail merge main document to being a Normal Word Document,
then save and close it, then re-open, and try again. You'll lose sorts
and filters. (That's purely a guess based on the behaviour of Windows
versions of Word, but there could be a similar problem on Mac).
Not sure what you could do about the other problems.
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
On 21/12/2009 14:16, sashaburg wrote:
I'm tryiing to create labels in Word 2004 Mac from an Excel 2004 mac
spreadsheet. When I go to locate the Excel file, I get an error message that
the merge document contains outdated sorting information, and Word is
removing it. At this point I'm stuck, there's no data left to merge and I
don't know what the outdated sorting info is. How can I get this to work?
I've tried resaving the Excel file as .txt. .cse and .xls. Are there any
other options I don't know about?