Office 97 mail merge to office XP

[Aaron]

We have a mail merge that is using an excel spreadsheet as a database
resource in office 97. I have transferred this user to a new machine using
office xp std. When we open the mail merge document in office xp the excel
spreadsheet tries to come up but it will lock up excel. I have also tried
recreating the merge but I get the error message Waiting for Excel to Accept
DDE commands. I opened this on another office xp machine and the same
happened. Is there a way around this? Maybe detach the merge on the office
97 machine and recreate on the office xp machine. If so how? Any help much
appreciated?

[Rita Xie [MS]]

Dear Aaron,

Thank you for your post.

Based on my understanding, when you open a Mail Merge document created on
another computer, you get an error saying "Waiting for Microsoft Excel to
Accept DDE commands". This issue also occurs when you open the document on
another computer.

According to my tests, A Merge document with an Excel data source created
in Word 97 can be correctly opened in Word 2002. That is to say, the issue
can be closely related to the client environemnt. Below are my suggestions
that may help:

1. Copy the Excel workbook to the same folder of the Merge document.

2. Enable other application to open Excel.
=================================
Clear the "Ignore other applications" option in the Tools -> Option ->
General in Excel.

3. Re-register Excel
=======================
a. In Start -> Run, type in "excel /unregserver"
b. click OK
c. In Start -> Run, type in "excel /regserver"
d. Click OK

4. You can test to see if the issue persists with a new workbook in Office
XP. If the issue persists with the Office 97 document only, it is most
likely caused by a specific problem in the document. You can refer to the
article below for steps to trouble shoot a damaged Word file.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;290932
290932.KB.EN-US WD2002: Troubleshooting Damaged Documents

I hope the information above can help you.

Sincerely,

Rita Xie
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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[Aaron]

I got it fixed. I had to take the Word document on the office 97 PC and turn
it back into a normal word document through mail merge help.
I then copied this file to the new office xp computer. On the Excel document
on the new PC I had to select and rename the merge area/fields. I then
opened the word document and started the mail merge wizard. I browsed to the
correct Excel file and selected the new merge area/field I had created. It
worked fine. FYI the only thing running on this machine is Microsoft
products XPP and Office Xp std. If anyone needs help with this I can give
you a step by step.
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