Word wont save mailmerge data connection

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I have several mail merge docs that I call up from Access. Access creates a new Word doc to contain the data, saves and closes that doc, then opens the mail merge doc. They have all lost their connection to the data docs. The data docs have the correct data, but the mail merge docs won’t link to them. I manually link the doc and save it, but next time the data remains unconnected. These docs have been working perfectly for years. I first noticed this a couple of months ago, but it has taken me this long to see that it happens every time. (yeah I know I’m slow).
any ideas anyone?

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Has the path to the data source become very long? If so, this could have caused the connection string to become too long so it would be truncated when the document is saved.

BTW when performing a mail merge from Access, I never save the connection info with the mail merge document. I use Automation to open the mail merge document and use Mailmerge.OpenDataSource to specify the SQL string and to connect to the database. After performing the mail merge, I close the source document without saving it.

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The path to the Data doc is only: “C:AccessInsurancMergeDocsAppointment Letter Data.doc”, and has been operating unchanged for many years.

I don’t use ‘Mailmerge.OpenDataSource to specify the SQL string and to connect to the database’. My way is a hangover of very early versions of Access, where to use an Access object as data source, started up another instance of Access. In those days, the less apps running the better. As it always worked very smoothly, I never changed it. It does have the advantage of enabling me to open the data doc to see who was the last recipient of that letter.

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Does the problem occur on other PCs too, or only on yours?

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Does the problem occur on other PCs too, or only on yours?

Mmmm, interesting, I generally only write letters on my main computer, so I hadn’t tried the other computers. All 3 have the same problem. All have Office 2003; 2 have Vista and 1 has XP.

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Have you tried other mail merges?

I performed several mail merges today with text files as data source using Word 2003 SP3 (with all updates) on Windows XP Pro SP3 (with all updates); the merge document stored the connection info without problems.

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I have gone through the code and can’t see why the problem is occurring. Hopefully you will be able to pinpoint the boo boo.
Here is a stripped down version of the code.

[codebox]Function PrintContactLetter(LetterF As Form)
‘Called from [Envelope Dialog] Form
Dim S As String, Tb As String, St As String, MrgDir As String
Dim ThisString As String, ThisDoc As String
Dim Lf As String
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
MrgDir = DLookup(“[MergeDirectory]”, “Paths”)
Tb = Chr$(9): Lf = Chr$(10)
S = “FirstName” & Tb & “LastName” & Tb & “Company” & Tb & “Street” & Tb & “Suburb”
S = S & Tb & “Both” & Tb & “RepPd”
On Error Resume Next
Set appWd = GetObject(, “Word.Application”)
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
If appWd Is Nothing Then
Set appWd = CreateObject(“Word.Application”)
End If
If appWd Is Nothing Then
MsgBox “Can’t start Word.”, vbExclamation
GoTo Exit_PrintContactLetter
End If
ThisDoc = “ClientLetter.doc”
On Error Resume Next
‘If the letter is open, we need to close it, so we can edit it’s data source doc.
Name MrgDir & ThisDoc As MrgDir & ThisDoc
If Err.Number 0 Then
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
appWd.Documents(ThisDoc).Close SaveChanges:=wdDoNotSaveChanges
End If
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
appWd.Application.Visible = False ‘otherwise Word becomes visible here
With appWd
On Error Resume Next
.Documents.Open MrgDir & “Appointment Letter Data.doc”
If Err.Number 0 Then
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
MsgBox “Can’t get names etc into the required doc.” & vbCrLf & _
“You will have to close all ‘Insurance’ Word docs,” & vbCrLf & _
“and try again!”, vbCritical
GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
End If
On Error GoTo Err_PrintContactLetter
With .Selection
.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory ‘Go to start of document
.EndKey Unit:=wdStory, Extend:=wdExtend ‘Select whole document
.Delete Unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=1 ‘Delecte the lot
.InsertAfter S + Lf ‘insert field headings
End With
End With
With LetterF
St = ![Street]
ThisString = Nz(![FirstName])
S = ThisString & IIf(ThisString “”, ” “, “”) & Tb
S = S & Nz(![LastName]) & Tb
‘function StripLineFeeds gets rid of any line feeds
‘within the fields causes Word to make a new record.
S = S & StripLineFeeds(Nz(!Company)) & Tb
S = S & StripLineFeeds(St) & Tb
S = S & StripLineFeeds(Nz(![Suburb])) & Tb
S = S & IIf(Nz(LetterF![SpouseToAddressCheckBox]), “yes”, “no”) & Tb
S = S & Nz(![ReplyPd])
End With
With appWd
.Selection.InsertAfter S
.ActiveDocument.SaveAs MrgDir & “Appointment Letter Data.doc” ‘|Save now so no
.Documents.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges ‘|dialog box on closing
.Documents.Open MrgDir & ThisDoc
.Visible = True
.ActiveDocument.PageSetup.FirstPageTray = gMPBin ‘MP Tray
.ActiveDocument.PageSetup.OtherPagesTray = wdPrinterLowerBin ‘Tray 2
”’ .WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize ‘Taken out 17 Feb 09
.Application.Activate
End With
DoCmd.Close acForm, LetterF.Name, acSaveNo
Exit_PrintContactLetter:
On Error Resume Next
Set appWd = Nothing
Exit Function

Err_PrintContactLetter:
MsgBox Err.Description
Resume Exit_PrintContactLetter
Resume
End Function[/codebox]

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Does this problem occur only when you replace the data document? In other words, if you try the merge again without replacing the data .doc file, does Word protest that it can’t find the document? Just wondering whether there is more to keeping the same data source than merely the file path and name.

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Hans: Other docs are doing the same.

jscher: Interesting thought. If I simply re-open the mail merge letter – the data is still attached. If I manually alter the data doc (not through Access), the mail merge doc is still attached to the data source and reflects the changes. So it looks like you have isolated Access as the cause.

Andrew: I haven’t set the docs to remove personal info.

Thanks guys, I will step through the code to see if I can find the bug. Any ideas would still very much be appreciated.

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Do you have Access 2003 SP3? If so, you might try the two post-SP3 hotfixes released by Microsoft:
Access 2003 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: November 21, 2007
Access 2003 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: December 18, 2007
They don’t list the problem that you have, but they correct several bugs in SP3.

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Do you have Access 2003 SP3? If so, you might try the two post-SP3 hotfixes released by Microsoft:
Access 2003 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: November 21, 2007
Access 2003 post-Service Pack 3 hotfix package: December 18, 2007
They don’t list the problem that you have, but they correct several bugs in SP3.

thanks for that Hans, but I didn’t need to. I just added the line:
appwd.ActiveDocument.MailMerge.OpenDataSource DataDoc
to the code. Works like a charm.
Thanks guys.

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I don’t have a solution but was wondering if the data connection is considered ‘personal information’ and might be removed when you choose to remove personal information from the document. I can’t recall whether Word 2003 even had this setting to remove personal information but Word 2007 certainly does.

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