How do I access a database in Outlook Express for mail merge

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Tiddles - 15 Aug 2006 21:40 GMT

I've created a database in Microsoft Outlook, but when using Microsoft Office
Word and setting up a mailmerge document I cannot access the database in
Outlook.

I use Outlook Express for my daily emails. Will this cause a problem? Its
just saying it can't access the database and can't find it, but when I go
back to Microsoft Outlook it's all there:-(

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Doug Robbins - Word MVP - 16 Aug 2006 04:31 GMT

Word cannot directly use an Outlook Express address list. You can however
export the address list from Outlook Express into a text file (comma
delimited) and use that as a mail merge data source.

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Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

> I've created a database in Microsoft Outlook, but when using Microsoft
> Office
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> just saying it can't access the database and can't find it, but when I go
> back to Microsoft Outlook it's all there:-(

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Graham Mayor - 16 Aug 2006 05:58 GMT

To clarify, Word will not see your Outlook Contacts List unless you set
Outlook as your default Windows e-mail application.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
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> I've created a database in Microsoft Outlook, but when using
> Microsoft Office Word and setting up a mailmerge document I cannot
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> problem? Its just saying it can't access the database and can't find
> it, but when I go back to Microsoft Outlook it's all there:-(

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Peter Jamieson - 17 Aug 2006 22:48 GMT

What kind of database have you set up in Outlook? Is it a list of contacts,
or based on Contacts items? Or have you created an Outlook forms application
that stores user-defined data? If it is a list of contacts, Graham's reply
should provide the necessary pointers. Otherwise, you will probably have to
find a way to export the data into a format that Word can use as a data
source - if you have an Outlook view that can display your data in a tabular
format, you can do a lot worse than select the data in Outlook, Edit|Copy,
then Edit|Paste into, e.g. Excel.

Peter Jamieson

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