New fields to merge don't show up

[njem]

I'm doing a merge to a word doc from access (using WordMerge, very
nice) but I've added new fields and I can't get them to show up as
fields I can add to my doc to merge. They are actually fields that
already existed in connected tables but I didn't have them in my
source for the form that the merge works from. I made the rest of the
fields in the related tables part of the source for the form, I even
added one to the form just to try. I created a new merge document
thinking that would fix it. I've rebooted so it can't be just some
memory refresh issue. When I'm in Word and click the "insert merge
field" and get the list, these other fields just aren't there. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Pete D.]

What are the field names in access? Pete

 

[pietlinden]

I'm doing a merge to a word doc from access (using WordMerge, very
nice) but I've added new fields and I can't get them to show up as
fields I can add to my doc to merge. They are actually fields that
already existed in connected tables but I didn't have them in my
source for the form that the merge works from. I made the rest of the
fields in the related tables part of the source for the form, I even
added one to the form just to try. I created a new merge document
thinking that would fix it. I've rebooted so it can't be just some
memory refresh issue. When I'm in Word and click the "insert merge
field" and get the list, these other fields just aren't there. Any
suggestions?

Thanks,
Tom

Try relinking/respecifying your source table/query for the merge. The
Word merge file is probably storing old information.

 

[njem]

What are the field names in access? Pete

Some are common, "city", "st", etc. One is "PhoneW". Your question got
me to wondering about common or overlapping field names so I made a
new field, "TestFieldName". I put that in one of the linked tables.
The form this merge is supposed to draw from has "Students" as its
main table and "Schools" as a linked table. Putting a test field in
"Schools" did not show up. But putting a test field (of a different
name) in the primary table, "Students", did show up. So it seems I
can't get any fields to show up in the merge list if it's not in the
primary table and not one that was already in the source for the form
when I first established the merge. Does all that give any clue?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[njem]

Try relinking/respecifying your source table/query for the merge. The
Word merge file is probably storing old information.

You mean in Word? I tried that and here's the problem, I'm using
Office 2003 and added Access 2007. Word doesn't understand an .accdb
file as a source. I'm not sure how WordMerge established the link in
the first place. I've tried creating brand new letters and the list of
available merge fields still comes up short. As in my response to Pete
D. I can get new fields in the main table to show up but not fields in
linked tables. What I'm trying to get to show up aren't even new
fields. It's just that when I first established source for the form I
only need for instance the name field of a school. Now I need the
address as well. So I've tried changing the source of the form to
either include everything from the School table, or explicitly naming
each field I need. No difference.

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Pete D.]

Make a query to join your data the way you want. Be careful to not use any
reserved words for word or access as field names. Fill the merge from the
query. Also word merge can be unforgiving if a field was full of numbers
and then you add a letter or visa versa. In this case you may have to seed
the first record with a number or alpha character to make word see the
field. That one took me a hour of experimenting to figure out. One last
trick is to copy the original source data to a new name so word will rewrite
its tables.

 

[pietlinden]

You mean in Word? I tried that and here's the problem, I'm using
Office 2003 and added Access 2007. Word doesn't understand an .accdb
file as a source. I'm not sure how WordMerge established the link in
the first place. I've tried creating brand new letters and the list of
available merge fields still comes up short. As in my response to Pete
D. I can get new fields in the main table to show up but not fields in
linked tables. What I'm trying to get to show up aren't even new
fields. It's just that when I first established source for the form I
only need for instance the name field of a school. Now I need the
address as well. So I've tried changing the source of the form to
either include everything from the School table, or explicitly naming
each field I need. No difference.

Thanks,
Tom

what if you re-link the tables by deleting the old links and adding
them again?

 

[Pete D.]

In the interest of time if and the other ideas didn't work I would just do a
make table query and export it to an Access 2003 data file for your source
to word. Macro can do that and probably easiest for you to learn. Pete D.