Hi Robert,

I believe that you are mistaken about your past experience.  Word has never
been able to merge a graphic or OLE-object directly from a database because
it does not understand the type of data the database sends across (long
binary).

To see how to merge pictures, see the "Graphic form a database" item under
the "Special Merges" section of fellow MVP CIndy Meister's website at

http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister/MergFram.htm

Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested.  Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.

Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP