Problem merging Word 2000 with Access 97

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shaggles - 21 May 2004 18:30 GMT

Whenever I try to run a mail merge Word tries to open my
Access database in Access 2000 even though the database is
in Acces 97. Does anyone know how to tell Word to open
the db in Access 97?

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 21 May 2004 20:29 GMT

Hi Shaggles,

> Whenever I try to run a mail merge Word tries to open my
> Access database in Access 2000 even though the database is
> in Acces 97. Does anyone know how to tell Word to open
> the db in Access 97?

The method word 2000 and Word 97 use by default to link to
Access is called DDE. And DDE is very finicky; it only wants
to talk to the same version as the version of Word performing
the mail merge.

You can use an ODBC connection to link with any Access
database version. You'll have to work a bit harder to get the
number and date formats, perhaps. You'll find information on
how to do that in the mail merge FAQ on my website.

Activate the "Select method" checkbox in the Open Data Source
dialog box. Once you've chosen the *.mdb file, you'll be able
to select ODBC. If you want to merge to a query, click the
"Options" button and activate "View" to include queries in
the list of tables.

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

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