Editing recipients by filtering

[KimC]

When I restrict the recipients I want in my mail merge using the Filter
button in the Edit Recipients dialog box, the recipients I want are
displayed. However, when I view the merged documents, there are a lot more
records that I had in the dialog box. When I return to the dialog box and
click the Filter button again, my criteria has changed, lines of AND and OR
criteria have been added. Also, more lines are added each time I close and
re-open the box. This is very frustrating! Can anyone tell me what I am
doing wrong?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

You aren't doing anything wrong.

As I said in another conversation that started today...

There are problems in this area in some versions of Word (which version are
you using?), because
a. Word generates an SQL query to get the data from Excel
b. Word either adds stuff to the query that should not be there, or in some
cases, the query does not actually work as it should

Broadly speaking there are two ways you can work around it:
a. you can try connecting via DDE, which will in most cases get the data
you asked for, but only if it is in the first sheet in the workbook and does
not contain non-ANSI Unicode characters
b. you can use Word VBA and the OpenDataSource method to issue the query
you really want (and to redo that, if necessary, each time you open the
document. But let's only go into the details of that if necessary.

Peter Jamieson

 

[KimC]

Thank you for the quick reply, sorry for posting it in another thread. I
have the same problem with both Word 2003 and 2007 (different machines). I
will try your work arounds.