I have a successful mail merge setup that uses a local
Excel file as my address list. When I place this file
on a remote web site, so that it is addressed as
http://www.website.com/spreadsheet.xls rather than
c:\my documents\spreadsheet.xls, Word 2003 spends a
few seconds trying to retrieve the spreadsheet and then
reports the following error message:
"The document name or path is not valid"

I suspect that this is due to some security feature in
Office 2003 or Windows XP (Service Pack 2), but all the
ordinary solutions (such as placing the website.com into
my trusted sites list) do not appear to have any effect.

Does anyone know how to configure this?

Thanks.

Hi Dennis,

I have a successful mail merge setup that uses a local
Excel file as my address list. When I place this file
on a remote web site, so that it is addressed as
http://www.website.com/spreadsheet.xls rather than
c:\my documents\spreadsheet.xls, Word 2003 spends a
few seconds trying to retrieve the spreadsheet and then
reports the following error message:
"The document name or path is not valid"

Actually, this is due to the fact that Word's core mail
merge technology is some 15 or 20 years old. Before
internet addresses were commonplace. Word didn't learn to
recognize internet addresses at all until version 97, and
then only for opening files.

I'm afraid the data source has to be saved to a traditional
network or local path.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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