Hi Deb,

Since you don't mention in what application format you're
supplying the data, and with which connection method you've
linked it up, it's not possible to give you a direct answer.

In general terms, the answer would be yes, however.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep
30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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If you are both using Office XP, there should be little difficulty, but Word
will use the complete pathname to your Excel file - e.g. c:\mydata\mysheet.
When you transfer the Word .doc and Excel .xls, you will need to ensure that
the Excel file is in exactly the same place on their machine. Otherwise, you
should change the Word document back to being a normal document, e.g. using
the first button in the mailmerge toolbar (you will lose the connection to
the .xls and any sort and filter settings, but everything else should
remain) and tell "someone else" how to re-make the connection.

If they are actually using an earlier version of Word/Excel (it isn't
completely clear from your message), then you need to do three things:
a. make sure the WOrd document can be opened (and does not lose any
important WordXP-specific layout/formatting
b. make sure the Excel .xls can be opened
c. make sure the connection method works, or disconnect the data source
before moving the files, as described above. By default, Word XP uses OLEDB
to connect to .xls files. Earlier versions of Word do not understand this
method. In Word XP you can check Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion
at open", reconnect and use another connection method (DDE is the default in
Word2000 and earlier) but it still does not guarantee that the earlier
versin of WOrd can make the connection.