I have several (@40) Word files (Office 2003) that point to the same Excel
Files (Office 2003). Everything works fine on the development machine but
when I moved all the files to another machine (same path to the Excel file)
the merge does not work, making the merge file not portable.

I suspect that this has to do with UNC coding of network addresses, which
may be different from what you would expect.

I set up a button in my merges toolbar to link to my database that is
machine independent. It is based on the merge file being in a particular
location relative to the Workgroup Templates folder. I make my merge
templates into non-merge documents (full of merge fields) and click on my
button to turn them into merge documents and link them to my database.

Function WorkGroupPath() As String
' Written by Charles Kenyon
' February 28, 2003
'
' Used by templates menus to set location of templates.
' Returns workgroup tempates path with "\" at the end.
'
' This is needed because if the folder is a network drive rather
' than a folder, it will have the "\" already. If it is a folder,
' it will not have the backslash. This function gives a string
' with the backslash in either case.
'
WorkGroupPath =
Application.Options.DefaultFilePath(wdWorkgroupTem platesPath)
If Right(WorkGroupPath, 1) "\" Then
WorkGroupPath = WorkGroupPath & "\"
End If
End Function

Sub AttachClients()
' Written by Charles Kenyon
' 19 April 2005
'
' Requires WorkGroupPath function
'
' Makes activedocument a mailmerge (letter) document and
' attaches Clients_Merge.xls from Parts folder of Workgroup Templates
folder.
'
' Then displays search dialog and goes to client, makes sure merge info is
' displayed instead of merge codes.
'
On Error Resume Next
'
' Name of file
Dim strFileName As String
Dim strProvider As String
strFileName = WorkGroupPath & "Parts\Merge Data\Clients_Merge.xls"
'
' Attach Merge list
' ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:=strFileName, _
ConfirmConversions:=False, ReadOnly:=False, LinkToSource:=True, _
AddToRecentFiles:=False, PasswordDocument:="", PasswordTemplate:="",
_
WritePasswordDocument:="", WritePasswordTemplate:="", Revert:=False,
_
Format:=wdOpenFormatAuto, Connection:= _
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Password="""";Us er ID=Admin;Data
Source=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\MS Office User System
Files\Shared Templates\Parts\Merge Data\Clients_Merge.xls;Mode=Read;Extended
Properties=""HDR=YES;IMEX=1;"";Jet OLEDB:" _
, SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM `Clients$`", SQLStatement1:="",
SubType:= _
wdMergeSubTypeAccess
' ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
Name:=strFileName, _
ConfirmConversions:=False, ReadOnly:=False, LinkToSource:=True, _
AddToRecentFiles:=False, PasswordDocument:="", PasswordTemplate:="",
_
WritePasswordDocument:="", WritePasswordTemplate:="", Revert:=False,
_
Format:=wdOpenFormatAuto, _
Connection:= _
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Password="""";Us er ID=Admin;Data
Source=strFileName;Mode=Read;Extended Properties=""HDR=YES;IMEX=1;"";Jet
OLEDB:" _
, SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM `Clients$`", SQLStatement1:="",
SubType:= _
wdMergeSubTypeAccess
' Following should be shorter version of above (somewhat)
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource strFileName, , , False, _
True, False, "", "", False, "", "",
"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Password="""";Us er ID=Admin;Data
Source=strFileName;Mode=Read;Extended Properties=""HDR=YES;IMEX=1;"";Jet
OLEDB:" _
, "SELECT * FROM `Clients$`", "", , wdMergeSubTypeAccess
'
' Show merge data
ActiveDocument.MailMerge.ViewMailMergeFieldCodes = False
'
' Find client
Application.Dialogs(wdDialogMailMergeFindRecipient ).Show
End Sub


--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

"Al Cameron" Al wrote in message
...
I have several (@40) Word files (Office 2003) that point to the same Excel
Files (Office 2003). Everything works fine on the development machine but
when I moved all the files to another machine (same path to the Excel
file)
the merge does not work, making the merge file not portable.