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Excel - Word could not re-establish a DDE connection to MS Excel.
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Jonathan Williams
Sep 22, 2000, 3:00:00 AM9/22/00
to
Hey folks,
Got a werid one here. I
have a user who is unable to complete a mail merge. The data source is an
excel file.
Error reads:
Word could not re-estblish a DDE connection to
Microsoft Excel to complete the current task
The only knowledge base article I could find that
relates to this issue is #Q113705. It didn't help.
The user is able to merge other documents just
fine. And if she decreases the size of the file the merge completes
fine. In other words, the original file has 4481 rows, but if she breaks
the file into 4 separate 1000 rows files the merge completes. User is
running Office 97 SR-2 on an NT 4.0 SP4 box. I have also tested the
operation with the same results and I am running Office 2000 on a Win 2000 Pro
SP1 box. Any Ideas?
Thanks
Jay
Dan Eastes
Sep 23, 2000, 3:00:00 AM9/23/00
to
I get the same error message when I merge with the data document open. In
my case simply closing the data document eliminates the problem.
--
Dan Eastes
"Jonathan Williams" <Jonat...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ON4AHBM...@cppssbbsa02.microsoft.com...
Jack Sons
Sep 25, 2000, 3:00:00 AM9/25/00
to
Hello Jonathan, hello Dan,
It is most remarkable that just today I experienced
the same. I work with Windows 98 second edition. I wanted a existing letter to
be linked to not the existing Excel workbook, but an other, a new one. My
problem did not exist any more after I restarted my PC. Restarting only Word
and/or Excel was not enough. I concluded that al the things I did before
starting the linking proces left me with not sufficient memory (rather
unthinkable) or insufficient system resources. I don not grasp all the
intricacies of the resource matter in general, but I saw a lot of weird
consequences, so I reckon that this time the resources did it
again.
Jack Sons
The Netherlands
Jonathan Williams <Jonat...@hotmail.com> schreef in berichtnieuws ON4AHBM...@cppssbbsa02.microsoft.com...
Jonathan R. Williams
Sep 30, 2000, 3:00:00 AM9/30/00
to
Actually, I found a fix for my issue. Simply
restarting the app nor restarting the PC would fix it. What I have to do
was select the "select method" option on the "Open Data Source" window.
(Where you select the excel file that contains your data). Rather than
using DDE for conversion I chose Worksheet converter (you may need to install
the additional component) and viola! I suspect it was the size of
the file itself at issue and this DDE conversion simply couldn't handle
it.
Good luck to anyone who finds this
helpful.
Jay
"Jonathan Williams" <Jonat...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:ON4AHBM...@cppssbbsa02.microsoft.com...
swbju...@gmail.com
Jan 24, 2020, 7:48:38 PM1/24/20
to
On Friday, September 22, 2000 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Jonathan Williams wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> Got a werid one here. I
> have a user who is unable to complete a mail merge. The data source is an
> excel file.
>
> Error reads:
>
>
>
> Word could not re-estblish a DDE connection to
> Microsoft Excel to complete the current task
>
>
>
> The only knowledge base article I could find that
> relates to this issue is #Q113705. It didn't help.
>
> The user is able to merge other documents just
> fine. And if she decreases the size of the file the merge completes
> fine. In other words, the original file has 4481 rows, but if she breaks
> the file into 4 separate 1000 rows files the merge completes. User is
> running Office 97 SR-2 on an NT 4.0 SP4 box. I have also tested the
> operation with the same results and I am running Office 2000 on a Win 2000 Pro
> SP1 box. Any Ideas?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Jay
I experienced the same problem. I read several tips that I tried to no avail. Of course the "confirm File Format" needs to be selected in Word (File, Options, Advanced, General, Confirm File Format). And using the OLE DB Database will not carry over the Excel formatting (a terrible workaround to this is formatting your data in Excel to "Text" which may mean you need to manually re-enter your data - ugh).
> Hey folks,
>
> Got a werid one here. I
> have a user who is unable to complete a mail merge. The data source is an
> excel file.
>
> Error reads:
>
>
>
> Word could not re-estblish a DDE connection to
> Microsoft Excel to complete the current task
>
>
>
> The only knowledge base article I could find that
> relates to this issue is #Q113705. It didn't help.
>
> The user is able to merge other documents just
> fine. And if she decreases the size of the file the merge completes
> fine. In other words, the original file has 4481 rows, but if she breaks
> the file into 4 separate 1000 rows files the merge completes. User is
> running Office 97 SR-2 on an NT 4.0 SP4 box. I have also tested the
> operation with the same results and I am running Office 2000 on a Win 2000 Pro
> SP1 box. Any Ideas?
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Jay
BUT - I found that my Excel files TYPES were being saved as "Excel Workbook" and my Word file TYPES were being saved as "Word Document." When I changed the file types to: "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" and "Word 97-2003 Document" I found the merge worked! It brought over the data in the proper format from Excel to Word! :)
I was elated to learn this after losing hours in research for this problem, then hours reformatting for the terrible workaround to use the OLE DB Database. Those of us who are avid Word/Excel mergers need the DDE to work - and this works. Cheers!
James W
Jul 11, 2022, 4:40:38 PM7/11/22
to
On Friday, January 24, 2020 at 7:48:38 PM UTC-5, swbju...@gmail.com wrote:
> BUT - I found that my Excel files TYPES were being saved as "Excel Workbook" and my Word file TYPES were being saved as "Word Document." When I changed the file types to: "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" and "Word 97-2003 Document" I found the merge worked! It brought over the data in the proper format from Excel to Word! :)
>
> I was elated to learn this after losing hours in research for this problem, then hours reformatting for the terrible workaround to use the OLE DB Database. Those of us who are avid Word/Excel mergers need the DDE to work - and this works. Cheers!
One of my users had the same issue. Your post pointed me to the right direction. The user tried to merge .xlsx into .doc and got the DDE error. After converting .xlsx file back to .xls file, he is able to merge the two. Thank you! James
> BUT - I found that my Excel files TYPES were being saved as "Excel Workbook" and my Word file TYPES were being saved as "Word Document." When I changed the file types to: "Excel 97-2003 Workbook" and "Word 97-2003 Document" I found the merge worked! It brought over the data in the proper format from Excel to Word! :)
>
> I was elated to learn this after losing hours in research for this problem, then hours reformatting for the terrible workaround to use the OLE DB Database. Those of us who are avid Word/Excel mergers need the DDE to work - and this works. Cheers!
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