OL2007 keeps trying to MAIL MERGE with the WRONG existing document

P

Paul B

ARRRGGHH !!!! This problem REALLY has me stumped!!

I'm trying to do a mail merge and Outlook (or perhaps Word?) insists on
going out and grabbing the WRONG FILE, and then it gives me a couple of error
messages because this "wrong file" is supposedly "being used by another
process"!

I'm using Office 2007 on Vista Home Premium, including Outlook 2007 with
Business Contact Manager. Here's how the problem occurs:

**Step 1.** When trying to MAIL MERGE, in the "Mail Merge Contacts" dialog
box I use the Browse... button, go out and select for the merge an EXISTING
document file (350KB in size and named YYMM-LNAME##-PFNNOTES.DOC) in the
following directory:

C:\Users\Paul\Documents\T\m\admin\forms\1 TCABS business document
templates\300 Project File Name Notes

(BTW, please note this file path)


**Step 2.** Then I click "OK" to do the merge, but instead I get TWO error
messages:

FIRST error message:

"Word cannot open this document template."
(C:\...\2A Draft Client Feedback Form...)

(please note THIS path also)


SECOND error message:

"the process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process"


Anyways, after this happens I notice several things:

a)***here's what's REALLY strange*** If you look above, you'll see that the
FILE PATH that appears along with the "Word cannot open this document
template" method is DIFFERENT from the file path that I used to select the
merge file (which by the way is a DOC file; I don't know why the error
message refers to it as a TEMPLATE (i.e. DOT) file)

b) in the folder containing the .DOC file I wanted to use for the merge,
there is a new "hidden" file, only 162 bytes in size, named
~$MM-LNAME##-PFNNOTES. Is this some sort of temp file?

c) The Windows Task Manager tells me that WINWORD.EXE process is still
running at this point, so I "kill" it and then I'm able to delete the
~$MM-LNAME##-PFNNOTES file mentioned above - and try the mail merge all over
again, to no avail.

......
Well, I'm at my wit's end. I spent a LOT of time creating the mail merge
document and am really annoyed that I can't use it. Do you have any idea
what might be causing this problem? For any assistance you can provide,
THANK YOU kindly!
 
M

Mary

This might not apply, but make sure you use Word instead of Outlook to do the
mail merge.
 
R

Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]

You're right. It doesn't apply. Word always does the merge no matter where
you start it from.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top