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ExcelXP => WordXP causes "Word Cannot Find Its Data Source" when Data is filtere

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Siegfried Glaser

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Dec 10, 2002, 6:04:18 AM12/10/02
to
Hello everybody,

I've got a queer little problem with a mailmerge between
WordXP and ExcelXP. I've created a small Excel-table with
two colums that looks like:

number text
1 a
2 b
3 b
4 c

and used it for a little playing around with mailmerge. To
do this I used the assistent provided by word and
everything worked just fine till I tried to filter the
data to get only part of the datasets.
Well, that's not quite correct. Even with the filtered
data it worked till I closed the Worddocument and tried to
reopen it.
At once Word ran into the error:

WD2002: Error Message: <File Name> Is a Mail Merge Main
Document. Word Cannot Find Its Data Source

described in the knowledgebase

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-
us;Q275934

but none of the points listed there seems to fit my
problem. The datasource is still where it had been all the
time and it hasn't been changed in any way.
OK, I thought and started to search this newsgroup
but 'til now I just couldn't find any help.

If sombody has any idea, please answer.
Any help would be appreciated.

so long
Sigi

Cindy Meister -WordMVP-

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Dec 10, 2002, 6:16:19 PM12/10/02
to
Hi Siegfried,

This is a bug in Word 2002: it loses the connection to Excel
and Access data sources as soon as you use the Recipient's
dialog box to filter the records.

If you choose "Advanced options" from the bottom of the list,
you'll get into the older "Query Options" dialog box. Any
filters you set here should NOT cause the problem.

Or, if you use any other connection method than OLEDB, I
believe the problem does not occur. See my reply to "mich" on
how you can choose DDE, ODBC or Word's internal converter
instead of OLEDb.

> I used the assistent provided by word and
> everything worked just fine till I tried to filter the
> data to get only part of the datasets.
> Well, that's not quite correct. Even with the filtered
> data it worked till I closed the Worddocument and tried to
> reopen it.
> At once Word ran into the error:
>
> WD2002: Error Message: <File Name> Is a Mail Merge Main
> Document. Word Cannot Find Its Data Source
>

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister
http://www.mvps.org/word
http://go.compuserve.com/MSOfficeForum

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Siegfried Glaser

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Dec 11, 2002, 3:20:32 AM12/11/02
to
Hi Cindy,

I'm indebted to you. Using MSQuery stopped the error.
Beeing unable to solve a problem really drives me mad and
in this particular case my sanity was gravely edangered ;)

Anyway it wasn't quite easy to find where to create the
query because I'm using the german version of OfficeXP.
So for anybody who encounters the same problem with a
german version:

-------------------------------------------------------
Workaround für Fehler: "<Name> ist ein Seriendruck-
Hauptdokument. Word konnte die Datenquelle <File> nicht
finden."

- Serienbrief-Assistenten starten
- "Andere Liste" wählen
- Im Dialogfenster rechts oben "Extras" anklicken
und "MSAbfrage" wählen
- neue Datenquelle erstellen...

Der Rest sollte selbsterklärend sein.
-------------------------------------------------------

Thank you, once more.

so long
Sigi


Cindy Meister -WordMVP-

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Dec 12, 2002, 5:27:16 AM12/12/02
to
Hi Siegfried,

> I'm indebted to you. Using MSQuery stopped the error.
>

Good. MSQuery isn't exactly what I was thinking about, my
mind hadn't taken that "branch" :-) A few explanations
about what's going on:

1) MSQuery uses an ODBC link method (instead of the new
OLEDB).
2) You don't *have* to use MS Query (which can be very slow
and unreliable under certain circumstanes). Word has its
own "Query Options", which you reach over das Dialogfeld
Empfägneradressen. Pfeil neben einem Feldnamen anklicken.
Statt einen Eintrag in dieser Spalte auszuwählen, den
untersten anklicken. Das Dialogfeld Abfrage Optionen soll
erscheinen.

Und eine ODBC oder DDE Verbindung erreicht man, indem die
Option "Konvertierungen beim Öffnen bestätigen" aktiviert
unter Extras/Optionen/Allgemein.

Und übrigens, ich kann auch alles auf Deutsch erklären,
wenn etwas unklar ist :-)

Siegfried Glaser

unread,
Dec 12, 2002, 7:04:46 AM12/12/02
to
Hallo Cindy!

Und nochmal danke ;)
Dieser Lösungsweg gefällt mir auch besser. Ich habe den
Weg über MSQuery nur deshalb gewählt weil ich den von dir
beschriebenen in meinem deutschen Office nicht gleich
nachvollziehen konnte (Asche auf mein Haupt). Beim
Probieren es doch noch zu schaffen bin ich dann eben über
MSQuery gestolpert und habe gesehen, dass es damit
funktioniert. Da ich eigentlich nur am Rande in die Lösung
dieses Problems involviert war habe ich mich dann, faul
wie ich bin, einfach damit zufrieden gegeben.

Ich fürchte ich sollte meine Office-Kenntnisse wiedermal
ein wenig auffrischen :(

mfg
Sigi

Cindy Meister -WordMVP-

unread,
Dec 12, 2002, 11:48:49 AM12/12/02
to
Hi Siegfried,

> Ich fürchte ich sollte meine Office-Kenntnisse wiedermal
> ein wenig auffrischen :(
>

Es gibt immer neues zu entdecken. Manchmal erfreut mich
das, manchmal empfinde ich es als Last. Aber dann sage ich
mir, letztere ist ein Zeichen des Alters - also freue ich
mich lieber darauf!

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