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MS Office Forum / Word / Mailmerge and Fax / January 2005DDE Connection - What is going on?
I work at a company of about 40 and we are just now experiencing this problem as well. What a headache! Not only can we not run the merges we've had set up in the past (that all ran like clockwork) but documents that were created and populated with merge data are now no longer opening. What change has occurred? I hope someone can shed some light on this - this problem is clearly new and very very naughty. Was there an Office update recently? I will check with my sysadmin to find out if we've done any updates recently. Otherwise we're running Office 2000 SP3 (9.0.7616) on Windows 2000 and have been in this environment for at least 2 years now. At the least, I'm hoping that there will be a way to recover the documents that are currently un-openable b/c it can't establish a DDE connection. Someone please help! :) Thanks, Jennifer Q Jeni, you might do better with this in the group microsoft.public.word.mailmerge.fields as that is the topic of their newsgroup and the mail merge experts frequent that newsgroup. dixie >I work at a company of about 40 and we are just now experiencing this > problem as well. What a headache! Not only can we not run the merges we've [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Thanks, > Jennifer Q Whoops, sorry, that is where you are - I was off with the fairies as usual :) dixie >I work at a company of about 40 and we are just now experiencing this > problem as well. What a headache! Not only can we not run the merges we've [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Thanks, > Jennifer Q Fun fun!! :-) : Whoops, sorry, that is where you are - I was off with the fairies as usual : :) : : dixie Hi Jeni (and Mark), There are various things that can cause this (see links below). Sometimes, it's an issue with how Windows is configured on a particular machine. I've never found a way to exorcise that particular problem (short of reformatting and reinstalling Windows). You do, however, have the option of connecting using a different connection method. In any case, just because Word can't reconnect using DDE doesn't mean that you can't open the documents at all. There should be an option to open them (while losing the active connection to the data source), then you can reconnect. See these articles: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;189259 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;198299 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;813989 > I work at a company of about 40 and we are just now experiencing this > problem as well. What a headache! Not only can we not run the merges we've [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > At the least, I'm hoping that there will be a way to recover the documents > that are currently un-openable b/c it can't establish a DDE connection. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Actually, I should have been more specific about the problem I'm having. (Be sure to read the whole post before even thinking about responding. Taking the time to type this and articulate the problems points me to an evil DDE problem. But I don't even know what DDE is.) The problem occurs when I open a document created via merge to Word using data from Excel. The data in Excel was in a named range. The data is merged via a macro that has recorded the steps of the merge. Depending on my security settings, I have the option to enable or disable macros. If I choose Disable, Excel launches, with no documents opened, and Word churns forever, no end in sight. I get an hourglass with this message in the status bar: Starting Microsoft Excel There is nothing to do at this point but endtask Word. Word is not pegging the CPU at all during this time. If I choose Enable, Excel launches and Word hangs with this in the status bar: Waiting for Microsoft Excel to Accept DDE Commands This, too, churns forever. There is nothing to do at this point but endtask Word. The person who uses/creates these documents has Macro security set to Low, so is not prompted. The behavior on his machine is the same as when I choose Enable. I don't think that the Macro is related but am trying to be as thorough in my description as possible. So, I cannot open these files. At all. In Excel, Ignore Other Applications is *not* checked. I enabled "Confirm Conversion at Open" in Word, but this had no effect, no change to the symptoms. I really hope you can shed some light on this problem. (I don't think that a full reinstall of Windows for the entire company is going to fly very well.) I still need to talk to the sysadmin to find out what, if any, MS or other patches were installed recently. This problem is halting business in some departments. :( Merge templates that worked a month ago no longer work. We're having to recreate the templates from scratch and change the conversion option when creating the template. Because DDE seems to be just broken (any other way of testing it?), we're using "via Converter". See this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;212314 INSIGHT: Let me explain a little more. If I try to create a new document using the Mail merge helper in Word, when I get to the second portion (Data Source) I choose Get Data | Open Data source. I find my Excel spreadsheet and click OK. Excel launches to a blank new document and I see "Waiting for Microsoft Excel to Accept DDE Commands" in the status bar of Word. I'm dead in the water and must endtask Word. If, when opening my data source, I check the Select Method checkbox, and then choose MS Excel Worksheet Via Converter, I'm able to merge successfully. If I choose the Select Method checkbox and then choose MS Excel Worksheets via DDE, it's toast again. So, it's a DDE problem? But what is DDE? How do I diagnose this more specifically? How do I fix it? And if I fix it, will all those documents be open-able again? (Please tell me yes!) Ok, Cindy, I hope you're ready for this one. :-) Thanks in advance for you wise counsel. --Jennifer Dickens : Hi Jeni (and Mark), : [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] : > At the least, I'm hoping that there will be a way to recover the documents : > that are currently un-openable b/c it can't establish a DDE connection. Hi Jeni, I'd say, pursuing your system admins is the best course. From the sound of it, something has been radically changed in how Windows is configured, if this is really happening on all machines. One possible culprit to check, right away - especially since you say "Low" macro security is working - would be anti-virus software, such as the Norton Office Plug-in. If you're allowed to boot Windows in SAFE MODE, try that and see if the problem goes away. If it does, this would further support the thesis that something in the Windows configuration is at fault. And for the meantime, until this gets fixed, I'm afraid you're stuck with merging "via converter" or with ODBC. For existing documents, you might try using Insert/File to bring them into a new document. That should drop the mail merge connection (and, unfortunately, headers, footers, margins, etc.) so that you can get to the document content and link up using one of the other methods. > Actually, I should have been more specific about the problem I'm having. (Be > sure to read the whole post before even thinking about responding. Taking [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] > Ok, Cindy, I hope you're ready for this one. :-) Thanks in advance for you > wise counsel. Cindy Meister INTER-Solutions, Switzerland http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004) http://www.word.mvps.org This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Well, the problem is now fixed. And we didn't do anything to fix it. My guess is that MS broke something with an update in the past few months, realized what they broke, and then fixed it with a more recent update. What a mess. Thanks for your help. : Hi Jeni, : [quoted text clipped - 80 lines] : This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or : reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-) Hi Jeni, > Well, the problem is now fixed. And we didn't do anything to fix it. My > guess is that MS broke something with an update in the past few months, > realized what they broke, and then fixed it with a more recent update. What > a mess. thanks for reporting back that the problem "fixed itself". Too bad we have no idea WHAT was changed, but I'm glad you're all able to work again! Cindy Meister |
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