I hve created several WORD forms which use an Excel Database to poplulate
Customer Name, Phone Number, etc. The problem is that when I am doing a
Mailmerge, my Excel database file is opened creating a problem for someone
trying to update the file at the same time. Is there a way to just have the
Mailmerge read the data from the Excel database rather than opening the file
with a lock on it?

If I flag it to protect and share it, I lose access to the [New] and
[Restore] buttons on the Excel standard Data Form.

Any ideas how to do a Mailmerge without causing a problem for someone trying
to update the Excel spreadsheet?

Office documents are not multi-user accessible. Get into the habit of
copying the spreadsheet to a temporary folder and use the copy as the data
sourtce to run your merge. You will, of course have to copy the file every
time you merge, in order to ensure it is up to date.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

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



fishcents wrote:
I hve created several WORD forms which use an Excel Database to
poplulate Customer Name, Phone Number, etc. The problem is that when
I am doing a Mailmerge, my Excel database file is opened creating a
problem for someone trying to update the file at the same time. Is
there a way to just have the Mailmerge read the data from the Excel
database rather than opening the file with a lock on it?

If I flag it to protect and share it, I lose access to the [New] and
[Restore] buttons on the Excel standard Data Form.

Any ideas how to do a Mailmerge without causing a problem for someone
trying to update the Excel spreadsheet?