MailMerge – Choose Contact Folder (WordXP)

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I am trying to use the Word’s Mail Merge wizard to use Contacts from my Outlook XP address book. However, when I get to the task pane for “Select from Outlook Contacts” and “Choose Contacts Folder”, I automatically get the error message “Unable to obtain list of tables from the data source”. Can anyone help?

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According to MSKB article WD2002: Outlook Does Not Correctly Display Contacts in Word, this can be cause by a corrupt MAPI component. The suggested solution is to select Start | Run… in Windows, type fixmapi.exe and press Enter. Hope this helps.

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I am having the same issue! However, running the fixmapi.exe does not help, I still get the error. Also, the MSKB article says to run the .exe and then choose OK. I never get an OK prompt, perhaps telling me my fixmapi.exe isn’t working properly…

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The OK button mentioned in the MSKB article is the one in the Start | Run dialog; FixMapi itself runs without displaying anything.

Do you also use another mail program, or have you ever used another mail program on this PC? If so, you may have to set Outlook as your default mail program. For Outlook 2002, you do this in Internet Explorer (Tools | Options…, Programs tab)

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Ahh, gotcha on the OK button.

I have not ever used another mail program on this PC. The issue pops up sporadically among our users, but we can’t figure out what setting is causing the problems. We checked the settings in I.E. and Outlook is set as the default for E-Mail and Contact List.

Further complicating the issue is that I can log into our virtual desktop via Citrix and use the Merge Wizard with my Outlook contacts with no problem.

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I guess it always helps for the user to be logged in to Outlook before trying to merge, and to complete any pending activity (e.g., save and close items). If Word was launched by composing a message in Outlook or opening a Word document from a browser, I would try closing Word and relaunching it from its shortcut (desktop, menu, quickstart, or whichever is handiest). Not sure any of this will help, but sometimes applications start waiting on one another, or on other tasks, so I’d try to rule out those situations.

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Good point. I have ruled those problems out and the merge goes off without a hitch when I start from Outlook and then go into Word. It’s only when I go from Word to Outlook that I get the error.

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Somewhere there is a MSKB article that says you should always initiate the MailMerge from Outlook, as merges started from Word do not necessarily return the correct fields – but I can’t find it at the moment. (I spent the better part of a Sunday trying to create a set of mailing labels, and had all sorts of trouble getting phone numbers returned until I found that article – now it works like a champ.)

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In playing around with the working version through Citrix, I learned that the mail merge IS much more functional when starting from Outlook. It seems that all the contact fields are imported, rather than just the few you get when beginning the merge from Word (Nickname was the crucial one I was looking for). You can always use the User-defined fields, but what a pain!

It looks like the best answer to this question is “just start from Outlook!”

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In playing around with the working version through Citrix, I learned that the mail merge IS much more functional when starting from Outlook. It seems that all the contact fields are imported, rather than just the few you get when beginning the merge from Word (Nickname was the crucial one I was looking for). You can always use the User-defined fields, but what a pain!

It looks like the best answer to this question is “just start from Outlook!”

Reply | Quote

Somewhere there is a MSKB article that says you should always initiate the MailMerge from Outlook, as merges started from Word do not necessarily return the correct fields – but I can’t find it at the moment. (I spent the better part of a Sunday trying to create a set of mailing labels, and had all sorts of trouble getting phone numbers returned until I found that article – now it works like a champ.)

Reply | Quote

Good point. I have ruled those problems out and the merge goes off without a hitch when I start from Outlook and then go into Word. It’s only when I go from Word to Outlook that I get the error.

Reply | Quote

I guess it always helps for the user to be logged in to Outlook before trying to merge, and to complete any pending activity (e.g., save and close items). If Word was launched by composing a message in Outlook or opening a Word document from a browser, I would try closing Word and relaunching it from its shortcut (desktop, menu, quickstart, or whichever is handiest). Not sure any of this will help, but sometimes applications start waiting on one another, or on other tasks, so I’d try to rule out those situations.

Reply | Quote

Ahh, gotcha on the OK button.

I have not ever used another mail program on this PC. The issue pops up sporadically among our users, but we can’t figure out what setting is causing the problems. We checked the settings in I.E. and Outlook is set as the default for E-Mail and Contact List.

Further complicating the issue is that I can log into our virtual desktop via Citrix and use the Merge Wizard with my Outlook contacts with no problem.

Reply | Quote

The OK button mentioned in the MSKB article is the one in the Start | Run dialog; FixMapi itself runs without displaying anything.

Do you also use another mail program, or have you ever used another mail program on this PC? If so, you may have to set Outlook as your default mail program. For Outlook 2002, you do this in Internet Explorer (Tools | Options…, Programs tab)

Reply | Quote

I am having the same issue! However, running the fixmapi.exe does not help, I still get the error. Also, the MSKB article says to run the .exe and then choose OK. I never get an OK prompt, perhaps telling me my fixmapi.exe isn’t working properly…

Reply | Quote

According to MSKB article WD2002: Outlook Does Not Correctly Display Contacts in Word, this can be cause by a corrupt MAPI component. The suggested solution is to select Start | Run… in Windows, type fixmapi.exe and press Enter. Hope this helps.

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By the way, thanks to everyone who’s looked at this and offered some advice!

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By the way, thanks to everyone who’s looked at this and offered some advice!

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