Outlook 2007 Mail Merge - "word was unable to open the data source

[Guest]

I have recently installed the Office 2007 Beta2 and I have hit a snag. While
in Outlook & Contacts, I selected a few contacts and started the mail merge
process by going to Tools/Mail Merge. The mail merge helper opens and I
simply clicked ok, but I get an error message of "word was unable to open the
data source". I have already updated my Outlook PST file to be that of the
latest version.

Side note: If I perform the mail merge from Word 2007 (going to Outlook
2007), the process is flawless.

Thank you,

 

[Patrick Schmid]

I am not sure about your problem, but you should first make sure that
you are running B2TR and not Beta 2. See my "B2TR issues" blog post for
info on B2TR and where to download it.

Patrick Schmid

 

[Guest]

Yes, I am running B2TR, but I will go look at your blog now.

Thanks,
--
Randy Holt
FTC - Technology Director

I am not sure about your problem, but you should first make sure that
you are running B2TR and not Beta 2. See my "B2TR issues" blog post for
info on B2TR and where to download it.

Patrick Schmid

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Mail merge has been a problem with Outlook 2007 throughout the beta, but it
is working correctly here. Are you using the mail merge helpers default
selections?

 

[Guest]

Yes, I have been using only the defaults so I could see how the product
differs from the previous version. I'm beginning to wonder if I need some
type of OBDC upgrade. It's very strange to start the merge from Word 2007
(B2TR) and see the Outlook 2007 contact list, but you can't start from
Outlook and go to Word.

Thanks,
--
Randy Holt
FTC - Technology Director

Mail merge has been a problem with Outlook 2007 throughout the beta, but it
is working correctly here. Are you using the mail merge helpers default
selections?

 

[Guest]

Oops, I meant ODBC.
--
Randy Holt
FTC - Technology Director

Yes, I have been using only the defaults so I could see how the product
differs from the previous version. I'm beginning to wonder if I need some
type of OBDC upgrade. It's very strange to start the merge from Word 2007
(B2TR) and see the Outlook 2007 contact list, but you can't start from
Outlook and go to Word.

Thanks,

 

[Roady [MVP]]

To start from Outlook and go to Word;
In Outlook select your Contacts folder-> Tools-> Mail Merge...

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Yes, I have been using only the defaults so I could see how the product
differs from the previous version. I'm beginning to wonder if I need some
type of OBDC upgrade. It's very strange to start the merge from Word 2007
(B2TR) and see the Outlook 2007 contact list, but you can't start from
Outlook and go to Word.

Thanks,
--
Randy Holt
FTC - Technology Director

Mail merge has been a problem with Outlook 2007 throughout the beta, but
it
is working correctly here. Are you using the mail merge helpers default
selections?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

FWIW what should happen when you start the merge from Outlook is that it
should create a file (probably called OMM0.doc) in your temp folder, then
start Word and set that up as the data source. One thing you can try is to
remove Outlook from the equation, create a new Mail Merge main document in
Word, and try opening that file as a data source. If that works, can you go
into Word's VBA editor, go into the Immediate window, and

print ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.Name
print ActiveDocument.MailMerge.DataSource.ConnectString


If you cann'connect using that approach, can you try the following:
a. check Word Tools|Options|general|"Confirm conversions at open"
b. try opening the file in Word (i.e. as a document, not as a data source)
c. note the type of file Word thinks it is (i,e. the one highlighted in
the Confirmation dialog box)
d. if an encoding dialog box is displayed, notice what encoding Word
thinks the file has.

FWIW despite having a .doc extension, the file is actually a Unicode-encoded
text file. Well, it is here.

Peter Jamieson

Yes, I have been using only the defaults so I could see how the product
differs from the previous version. I'm beginning to wonder if I need some
type of OBDC upgrade. It's very strange to start the merge from Word 2007
(B2TR) and see the Outlook 2007 contact list, but you can't start from
Outlook and go to Word.

Thanks,

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Forgot - in Word 2007 the file conversion option is Word
Options|General|"Confirm file format conversion on open"

Peter Jamieson

 

[Guest]

Robert,

That's exactly what I am doing, but I get the error message in the process.
I understand the whole mail merge process because I am a software trainer.
There's just something in Outlook 2007 that keeps Word from accessing the
designated contacts when you start from Outlook.

Thank you!
--
Randy Holt
FTC - Technology Director

To start from Outlook and go to Word;
In Outlook select your Contacts folder-> Tools-> Mail Merge...

--
Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook]
Coauthor, Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003


-----
Yes, I have been using only the defaults so I could see how the product
differs from the previous version. I'm beginning to wonder if I need some
type of OBDC upgrade. It's very strange to start the merge from Word 2007
(B2TR) and see the Outlook 2007 contact list, but you can't start from
Outlook and go to Word.

Thanks,

 

[Guest]

Problem solved! Thank you to everyone who responded! I found the answer in
a posting from Beth Melton (below) on a different issue. I have Norton AV
2005 and that's what was keeping Word 2007 from completing my Mail Merge
generated from Outlook 2007. I used #1 below.

Thanks,
Randy Holt

No. 1) If you are using Norton AV then go to Norton Options and in the
Miscellaneous section turn off "Enable Office Plug-in".

No. 2) If you are not using Norton but it was previously installed then the
DLL for the plug-in could still be registered.

Search for officeav.dll and if found go to Start/Run and run the
following command:

regsvr32 /u "c:\program files\norton antivirus\officeav.dll"

In the above example the path for "Officeav.dll" would depend on the
location of the DLL.

If after disabling the plug-in you continue to encounter errors in
Normal.dotm, then use Windows Search to locate this file and rename it
to OldNormal.dotm (or delete it) and Word will create a new on upon
starting.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP