HELP-failure initiating DDE link with MS excel during word mail me

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doingitall - 04 Mar 2005 23:25 GMT

Using MS office 2000 on Windows XP Pro
problem occurs in Word-tools-mail merge-create-form letter-active window-get
data-open data source- choose excel file which works on other comp, excel
starts doesn't load file and word status message at bottom of window reads
"initiating DDE link with MS excel". Word locks up, never returns, have to
end task. In excel check "ignore other applications" ok. tried
reinstall/add ODBC and Query. What's not installed properly or how get
excell to open file? Doesn't work either if file already open in excel or
excel even open.

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Peter Jamieson - 05 Mar 2005 16:44 GMT

I doubt if I can help but can you please try the following?
a. start Word
b. start Excel
c. in a blank Word document, put the following field:

{ dde excel system sysitems }

d. select the field and execute it. Use Alt-F9 to show the result - if the
field executes correctly, you should see something like

SysItems Topics Status Formats Selection
Protocols EditEnvItems

I am interested to see whether /any/ DDE connection is being made.

If that works, try

{ dde excel system topics }

You should see

[Book1]Sheet1 [Book1]Sheet2 [Book1]Sheet3
System

If that works, try opening your Excel document, and re-execute the { dde
excel system topics } field. You should see the names of some sheets in your
workbook, e.g.

[Book1.xls]Sheet1

then try

{ dde excel [Book1.xls]Sheet1 R1C1 }

using the name from the previous step instead of [Book1.xls]Sheet1

Peter Jamieson

> Using MS office 2000 on Windows XP Pro
> problem occurs in Word-tools-mail merge-create-form letter-active
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> excell to open file? Doesn't work either if file already open in excel or
> excel even open.

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doingitall - 07 Mar 2005 21:35 GMT

Thanks for reply. I understand your thought process, could you please give
me more detail on how (the key strokes) you were thinking of to "put the
following field { dde excel system sysitems }" and "execute it".

Thank you

> I doubt if I can help but can you please try the following?
> a. start Word
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
>
> Peter Jamieson

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Peter Jamieson - 07 Mar 2005 22:17 GMT

Use ctrl-F9 to insert the special field braces {}

Type "dde excel system sysitems" (without the quotes) between the { and
the }

Select the field (normally, selecting one of the braces is enough).

Press F9 to execute it.

Alt-F9 toggles between "field codes" view and "field results" view.

Peter Jamieson

> Thanks for reply. I understand your thought process, could you please
> give
[quoted text clipped - 42 lines]
>>
>> Peter Jamieson

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