Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us
Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network
Home
DiscussionsAccessExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointPublisherWord
DirectoryUser Groups
Related Topics
Outlook ExpressInternet ExplorerWindowsMS Server ProductsMore Topics ...

MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / October 2007

Tip: Looking for answers? Try searching our database.

Mailmerge from SQL Server 2000 Stored Procedure

Thread view: 
Enable EMail Alerts  Start New Thread
Thread rating: 
memead - 28 Sep 2007 20:44 GMT
Is there any definitive guide on using a SQL Server 2000 stored procedure to
gather data for a mailmerge on Word 2003?  I have a VB6 app that is currently
using an Access 97 MDb to assist in a Word 2003 mailmerge and I wish to phase
out Access.  I have seen information on creating an .odc file to perform a
mailmerge from a SQL Server table or view, but I would prefer to use a stored
procedure.

Much thanks.
Peter Jamieson - 29 Sep 2007 13:21 GMT
> Is there any definitive guide on using a SQL Server 2000 stored procedure
> to
> gather data for a mailmerge on Word 2003?

No, at least not as far as I know.

The only way I know how to do this is to use Word VBA OpenDataSource to open
a ODBC connection that issues an ODBC call "escape" rather than a SQL
SELECT.  So for example if you have an ODBC System or user DSN called mydsn
that has all the info necessary to connect to your database server and a
specific database, and you are using integrated security, you can use

ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _
 Name:="", _
 Connection:="DSN=mydsn;", _
 SQLStatement:="{ call mystoredprocedure }", _
 Subtype:=wdMergeSubtypeWord2000

The { call } syntax is one of a number of "ODBC escapes".

One problem with this is that Word does not "see" the data in columns that
have the Unicode data types in SQL Server when it connects via ODBC. Another
possible problem is that you may find that only some procedures work - if
so, it's probably multi-step procedures that fail.

In Word 2002 and later, you really ought to be able to use a stored
procedure via OLE DB, but I have never found any syntax that works in the
SQLStatement parameter. In theory, the same ODBC { call } syntax ought to
work because it is supported in the OLE DB provider as well, but it does
not. Nor do the variants { exec }, or using a Transact-SQL EXECUTE
statement.

In other words, I don't know how you do it in OLE DB or even if it can be
done.

It does at least seem to be possible to use the results of Transact-SQL
table-valued functions as a merge data source, simply because you can
retrieve that table using a standard SELECT statement. But
a. I think that type of function only appears in later versions of SQL
Server than 2000
b. you would have to wrap every stored procedure you wanted to use in a
table-valued function to do it.

Personally, I think Microsoft should have fixed this problem years ago, or
at least provided some clues on how to use stored procedures as a data
source, if it is feasible, but I guess the fact that they haven't problably
means that corporates rarely do things this way.

Signature

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

> Is there any definitive guide on using a SQL Server 2000 stored procedure
> to
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Much thanks.
memead - 01 Oct 2007 15:15 GMT
Much thanks.  I was hoping for an easy answer.  The only reason that my VB6
application uses mailmerge is to get data into a Word document for easy
editing by the users.  Crystal Reports does a good job of printing reports,
but I need some way of getting the data into Word and opening up the document
in Word.

Thanks again,

Mike

> > Is there any definitive guide on using a SQL Server 2000 stored procedure
> > to
[quoted text clipped - 56 lines]
> >
> > Much thanks.
Peter Jamieson - 01 Oct 2007 15:33 GMT
You can use Word VBA and ADO to access SQL Server data directly, but not for
use as a MailMerge data source - in other words, you either have to create
your own mailmerge facility, or use VBA to create the mail merge data source
that you need, then use that in the merge(s) you want to do (cf. the way you
seem to be using Acess as an intermediary at the moment).

Signature

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

> Much thanks.  I was hoping for an easy answer.  The only reason that my
> VB6
[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]
>> >
>> > Much thanks.
 
Sign In
Join
My Latest Posts
My Monitored Threads
My Blog
My Photo Gallery
My Profile
My Homepage

Start New Thread
Enable EMail Alerts
Rate this Thread



©2008 Advenet LLC   Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.