Excel data source connection very slow in XP

[Brad Robinson]

When opening a word2000 mail merge template, in an XP
environment, that uses an Excel spreadsheet as a data
source, it takes between 35 and 50 seconds to connect. The
exact same scenario in an NT environment is under 3
seconds.

This is occurring with all the templates we use, over 800,
so its not an isolated case.

Specifics:
Word (2000(SR1), 2002(SP2) Same problem with both.
Windows XP (SR1)
Excel (97, 2000, 2002) Same problem with all.
Word is opening Excel, the following messages appear
during the process:
- Opening Microsoft Excel
- Waiting for Microsoft Excel to accept DDE commands
- Initializing DDE link with Microsoft Excel
- Opening merge.xls in Microsoft Excel
- Initializing DDE link with Microsoft Excel
- Requesting query information from Microsoft Excel
and then repeats again
- Opening Microsoft Excel
- Waiting for Microsoft Excel to accept DDE commands
- Initializing DDE link with Microsoft Excel
- Opening merge.xls in Microsoft Excel
- Initializing DDE link with Microsoft Excel
- Requesting query information from Microsoft Excel
Now opens the document.

Any ideas on what is going on and how to fix or a work
around would be appreciated. (Please remember that we are
dealing with 800+ templates that need to be fixed,
therefore a system/environment fix is preferable over a
document level fix.)

Please post a reply or email me directly.

Thanks for you time and effort,

Brad Robinson
barob...@co.snohomish.wa.us

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Brad,

> When opening a word2000 mail merge template, in an XP
> environment, that uses an Excel spreadsheet as a data
> source, it takes between 35 and 50 seconds to connect. The
> exact same scenario in an NT environment is under 3
> seconds.
>

this seems to pop up from time to time on some machines. I
had a Win98 machine where DDE connections were even slower
than what you describe, here.

The problem isn't with Word, per se, but with how the Windows
configuration on the individual machine is handling DDE.
FWIW, I never found out exactly what it was - I just avoided
DDE and used ODBC or Word's internal spreadsheet converter on
that particular machine...

When I moved to a different machine, with WinXP, all versions
of Word had no trouble with making DDE connections.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jan
24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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