[Darren D]

I have a number of customers each of which have hundreds of documents
currently configured with Word 2003 using the .doc data source. Is there any
way of making Word 2007 use these datasources? When I try to open and/or
create a new document all I can seem to use is Access database datasources.

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Word 2007 can certainly use a Word document as a data source. Where is it
that you are getting the indication that only an Access database can be
used? By default the Select Data Source dialog opens with the Files of Type
pulldown showing "All Data Sources (*.odc; *.mdb, etc.etc" selected and in
that case Word documents (*.docx; *.doc; *.docm) that are located in the
folder will be displayed.

By selecting Word Documents in the Files of Type pulldown, you can restrict
the display of potential data sources to only those types of files.

Your problem may be however that there are no Word documents located in the
folder whose contents are display and you need to navigate to the folder in
which your datasources are located by using the "Look in" pulldown at the
top of the dialog.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Darren D" Darren wrote in message
...
I have a number of customers each of which have hundreds of documents
currently configured with Word 2003 using the .doc data source. Is there
any
way of making Word 2007 use these datasources? When I try to open and/or
create a new document all I can seem to use is Access database
datasources.

[Matthew S.]

I know exactly what Darren is talking about. He means that when creating a
new data source, when saving this file the only option in the drop down is
*.mdb, which office 2003 (pro or basic) seems unable to use in word as a data
source. I was going to enter my own thread but I'm hoping this will suffice!
thanks!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

Word 2007 can certainly use a Word document as a data source. Where is it
that you are getting the indication that only an Access database can be
used? By default the Select Data Source dialog opens with the Files of Type
pulldown showing "All Data Sources (*.odc; *.mdb, etc.etc" selected and in
that case Word documents (*.docx; *.doc; *.docm) that are located in the
folder will be displayed.

By selecting Word Documents in the Files of Type pulldown, you can restrict
the display of potential data sources to only those types of files.

Your problem may be however that there are no Word documents located in the
folder whose contents are display and you need to navigate to the folder in
which your datasources are located by using the "Look in" pulldown at the
top of the dialog.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Darren D" Darren wrote in message
...
I have a number of customers each of which have hundreds of documents
currently configured with Word 2003 using the .doc data source. Is there
any
way of making Word 2007 use these datasources? When I try to open and/or
create a new document all I can seem to use is Access database
datasources.

[Graham Mayor]

You don't have to use the dialog to create a data source in any version of
Word. A simple table will suffice. If you start from an existing 2007 MDB
file, you can add the old MailMerge Helper to the QAT
(http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm ) and if you edit the
data file from that it will be converted to a Word Table for you. Save as
Word 97-2003 format which can be used as a data source for either version of
Word.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Matthew S. wrote:
I know exactly what Darren is talking about. He means that when
creating a new data source, when saving this file the only option in
the drop down is *.mdb, which office 2003 (pro or basic) seems unable
to use in word as a data source. I was going to enter my own thread
but I'm hoping this will suffice! thanks!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

Word 2007 can certainly use a Word document as a data source. Where
is it that you are getting the indication that only an Access
database can be used? By default the Select Data Source dialog
opens with the Files of Type pulldown showing "All Data Sources
(*.odc; *.mdb, etc.etc" selected and in that case Word documents
(*.docx; *.doc; *.docm) that are located in the folder will be
displayed.

By selecting Word Documents in the Files of Type pulldown, you can
restrict the display of potential data sources to only those types
of files.

Your problem may be however that there are no Word documents located
in the folder whose contents are display and you need to navigate to
the folder in which your datasources are located by using the "Look
in" pulldown at the top of the dialog.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Darren D" Darren wrote in message
...
I have a number of customers each of which have hundreds of
documents currently configured with Word 2003 using the .doc data
source. Is there any
way of making Word 2007 use these datasources? When I try to open
and/or create a new document all I can seem to use is Access
database datasources.

[Darren D[_2_]]

Thanks Graham,
I don't use the mailmerge helper your document talks about but it did show
me how to add the tools I need. Although they don't know it, my customers
who use mailmerge for their docuemnts thank you as well. No one thought the
idea of changing thousands of documents would be fun.
Darren D

"Graham Mayor" wrote:

You don't have to use the dialog to create a data source in any version of
Word. A simple table will suffice. If you start from an existing 2007 MDB
file, you can add the old MailMerge Helper to the QAT
(http://www.gmayor.com/merge_labels_with_word_2007.htm ) and if you edit the
data file from that it will be converted to a Word Table for you. Save as
Word 97-2003 format which can be used as a data source for either version of
Word.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Matthew S. wrote:
I know exactly what Darren is talking about. He means that when
creating a new data source, when saving this file the only option in
the drop down is *.mdb, which office 2003 (pro or basic) seems unable
to use in word as a data source. I was going to enter my own thread
but I'm hoping this will suffice! thanks!

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote:

Word 2007 can certainly use a Word document as a data source. Where
is it that you are getting the indication that only an Access
database can be used? By default the Select Data Source dialog
opens with the Files of Type pulldown showing "All Data Sources
(*.odc; *.mdb, etc.etc" selected and in that case Word documents
(*.docx; *.doc; *.docm) that are located in the folder will be
displayed.

By selecting Word Documents in the Files of Type pulldown, you can
restrict the display of potential data sources to only those types
of files.

Your problem may be however that there are no Word documents located
in the folder whose contents are display and you need to navigate to
the folder in which your datasources are located by using the "Look
in" pulldown at the top of the dialog.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"Darren D" Darren wrote in message
...
I have a number of customers each of which have hundreds of
documents currently configured with Word 2003 using the .doc data
source. Is there any
way of making Word 2007 use these datasources? When I try to open
and/or create a new document all I can seem to use is Access
database datasources.