Publisher catelog merge- cannot open data source file

[kmkw]

whether I try to open the source file or open a new one, I get the message:
operation cannot be completed becasue of dialog or database engine failures.
Please try again later.

Troubleshooting advice suggestd to undate the engine from Windows update -
can't find it.

Does anyone have more specific troubleshooting advice?

 

[Mary Sauer]

This article has a solution:
You receive a "The operation cannot be completed because of dialog or data base
engine failures" error message when you try to perform a mail merge by using an
Outlook 2003 contact folder in Publisher 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908474/en-us

 

[kmkw]

I am using Publisher 2003 and the data source is an Excel file. I am using
catelog merge feature. The original template hsa been in use for over a
year. I update once a month or so- first time I have had a problem. I may
have added a column to the origianl source file, but started a new publisher
setup document and copied the sheet to a new excel file, incase of
corruption. same error message.

Only connection to outlook is I copied a field from the excel file to an
outlook message earlier today, but deleted the field I copied before the
message was sent.

 

[kmkw]

more- I may have copied a phone number from outlook in the excel source file
since the lst time I ran the merge.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Take a look at your MDAC components. Be certain you have no mismatched .dlls.
There is a component checker here:
MDAC Utility: Component Checker
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=8f0a8df6-4a21-4b43-bf53-14332ef092c9

All the MDAC downloads are here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/aa937730.aspx

 

[kmkw]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for your help. Just wanted to follow up. I ran the checker, it did
find mis-matches. From there I tried the downloads, unsuccefully. I am
running standalone XP - messages said I had to install from Windows update-
many more tries on different selections and KB952287 fix. - Tried moving the
files to a different computer, same "unable to open file" messages.

I went back rebuilding the source file from scratch- and success!

Publisher still cannot open the origianl source file. One other piece of
info. When Publisher file was open and the merge wizard was unable to open
the source file- I could not manually open the source excel file to edit- it
only opened in read-only, and locked for editing. Closing the publisher file
allowed it to be edited.... publisher said it couldn't open it and excel said
it was open?

 

[Mary Sauer]

There are help articles here, might give you some insight.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HP030662451033.aspx