How do prevent my hyperlink from 'locking up'?

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mcreynolds - 04 Jan 2006 22:04 GMT

I have a Word mail merge letter that uses a data source from Excel. I'm
trying to use a hyperlink in an Excel spreadsheet to open this mail merge
letter. I created a hyperlink in Excel and then created a macro to open the
letter by opening the hyperlink. The problem is both Word and Excel 'lock up'
on me when I try to use the hyperlink to open the mail merge letter. Any
ideas why?

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 05 Jan 2006 10:54 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?bWNyZXlub2xkcw==?=,

> I have a Word mail merge letter that uses a data source from Excel. I'm
> trying to use a hyperlink in an Excel spreadsheet to open this mail merge
> letter. I created a hyperlink in Excel and then created a macro to open the
> letter by opening the hyperlink. The problem is both Word and Excel 'lock up'
> on me when I try to use the hyperlink to open the mail merge letter.

The Word application is visible? Are you sure that it's not waiting for you to
dismiss a message box?

Which version of Office are we dealing with? Is the merge letter linked to the
Excel file you're currently using with the hyperlink?

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 :-)

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mcreynolds - 05 Jan 2006 17:17 GMT

I'm working with Word 2003. The letter is not visible until about 60 seconds
AFTER I attempt to open the merge letter using the hyperlink created in my
Excel spreadsheet. A message box pops up after the 60 seconds saying "The
task is taking longer than expected. Do you want to continue waiting?" After
I select 'No' both the merge letter, and the Excel data source, open up.

I'm assuming the 'Task' in the message box is opening up the Excel data
source? For some reason, when I use hyperlinks in Excel to open up mail merge
letters there is a delay in accessing the file. Is that because an Excel
database is being opened simultaneously?

> Hi =?Utf-8?B?bWNyZXlub2xkcw==?=,
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
> in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

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Cindy M -WordMVP- - 06 Jan 2006 14:08 GMT

Hi =?Utf-8?B?bWNyZXlub2xkcw==?=,

> I'm working with Word 2003. The letter is not visible until about 60 seconds
> AFTER I attempt to open the merge letter using the hyperlink created in my
> Excel spreadsheet. A message box pops up after the 60 seconds saying "The
> task is taking longer than expected. Do you want to continue waiting?" After
> I select 'No' both the merge letter, and the Excel data source, open up.
>

OK, this sounds as if DDE is being used to link in the data. In this case, I'd try
using an ODBC data connection to the Excel data source file. That will let mail
merge work without having to open the data source file (indeed, Excel need not even
be present on the machine when using ODBC).

However, an ODBC connection would have one drawback: the numerical and date
formatting would not come across from the worksheet. You'd have to duplicate this in
the merge fields of the main merge document. Does it sound as if this approach would
work for you?

> I'm assuming the 'Task' in the message box is opening up the Excel data
> source? For some reason, when I use hyperlinks in Excel to open up mail merge
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> > Which version of Office are we dealing with? Is the merge letter linked to the
> > Excel file you're currently using with the hyperlink?

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 :-)

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