Word cannot find data source problem

[alfrodull]

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that folder if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess, but in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max 255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open it, Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Jane]

I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message 'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we linked in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source. The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network - the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a network
drive - or is it the path?

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that folder if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess, but in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max 255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open it, Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive, i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or shorter than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a network
drive - or is it the path?

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess, but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Jane]

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive, i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or shorter than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a network
drive - or is it the path?

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess, but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores, that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not appear to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup. I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive, i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Jane]

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives too. If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not appear to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup. I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive, i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that, Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string (max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source" and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document is not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the same one)
attached.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup. I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data
source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

:

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both
Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive,
i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a
netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text
file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or
shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total
length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will
happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are
copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new
data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will
run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a
message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data
source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that,
Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file
with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the
network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's
on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file
with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just
the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks
is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number
of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and
chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to
guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's
built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it
generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string
(max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you
close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens
the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short
pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise
the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave
that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its
data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back
and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source"
and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple
csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a
work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new
csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get
the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently
selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it
remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who
knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Jane]

do you mean connected to a .dot file? How would I find out if it is?

One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document is not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the same one)
attached.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup. I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data
source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

:

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both
Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive,
i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a
netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal text
file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or
shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total
length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will
happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are
copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new
data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will
run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a
message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source' and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data
source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that,
Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file
with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the
network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source that's
on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge file
with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or just
the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word thinks
is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a number
of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and
chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to
guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's
built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it
generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection string
(max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you
close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens
the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short
pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise
the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave
that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its
data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back
and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data Source"
and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple
csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check, but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a
work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a new
csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine. But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get
the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently
selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it
remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who
knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Wen you have managed to open it, use Tools->Addins and Templates to have a
look.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

do you mean connected to a .dot file? How would I find out if it is?

One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document is not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the same one)
attached.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives
too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

:

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not
appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a
much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would
help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup.
I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the
share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data
source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

:

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both
Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive,
i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a
netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal
text
file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same
network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or
shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total
length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word
merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will
happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are
copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new
data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time
the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will
run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a
message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file
we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source'
and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data
source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that,
Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file
with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the
network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source
that's
on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge
file
with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or
just
the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word
thinks
is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a
number
of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and
chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work
for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to
guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's
built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it
generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection
string
(max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you
close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and
re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens
the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short
pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise
the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave
that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its
data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back
and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the
SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data
Source"
and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple
csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder
and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check,
but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a
work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore
in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a
new
csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine.
But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get
the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv
file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently
selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any
underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file
to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it
remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who
knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

Thanks!

 

[Mike DiCanio]

I am having the same problem as all of you. I receive the error "Word cannot
find the source ". My files are on the network and have long descriptive
file names. Please let me know if there is any further information on this
from your experiences.

Thanks.

Mike

Wen you have managed to open it, use Tools->Addins and Templates to have a
look.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

do you mean connected to a .dot file? How would I find out if it is?

One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document is not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the same one)
attached.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives
too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

:

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not
appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on a
much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would
help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network setup.
I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the
share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data
source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

:

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when both
Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network drive,
i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a
netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal
text
file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same
network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or
shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total
length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word
merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will
happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file) are
copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the new
data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next time
the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document will
run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get a
message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the file
we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source'
and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data
source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do that,
Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge file
with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the
network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source
that's
on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge
file
with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name, but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or
just
the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word
thinks
is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a
number
of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and
chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't work
for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have to
guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's
built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it
generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection
string
(max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when you
close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and
re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word opens
the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short
pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not recognise
the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's leave
that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to its
data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops back
and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on the
SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data
Source"
and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a simple
csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources folder
and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL check,
but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to a
work
around is that some of the field headings have an underscore
in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make a
new
csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works fine.
But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to get
the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv
file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently
selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any
underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv file
to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it
remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but who
knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a fix?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Is this also Word 2007?

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I am having the same problem as all of you. I receive the error "Word
cannot
find the source ". My files are on the network and have long descriptive
file names. Please let me know if there is any further information on
this
from your experiences.

Thanks.

Mike

Wen you have managed to open it, use Tools->Addins and Templates to have
a
look.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

do you mean connected to a .dot file? How would I find out if it is?

:

One other thing that may be worth checking is that the document is not
connected to a template that also has a dtaa source (maybe the same
one)
attached.

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

I'll try that. I'll check into the permissions on network drives
too.
If
I have to I'll call Microsoft. Thanks for your help.

:

OK, I checked again with a similar length pathname and it does not
appear
to
be long enough to cause problems here. Which leaves me a bit stuck.

If you are able to test the same document and mail merge source on
a
much
shorter network path and it still does not work, I think that would
help
establish that it is probably something to do with the network
setup.
I
would be looking at the permissions for the /share/ and for the
underlying
folder - e.g. you may need to be able to read and write to both the
share
and the folder (even though mailmerge typically only reads the data
source).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

1. The two files are in the same folder on a network drive.
2. the path to the data source is longish:
\\server\company\word\mhl clients\h\hollowayjane\mailmerge.txt
when I tested on the local drive it was short:
c:\cis\mailmerge.txt
3. there are no filters or sorts

:

I just did some simple tests here and was able to re-open when
both
Mail
merge Main Document and data source were on the same network
drive,
i.e.
suggesting that the problem does not occur solely because it's a
netwrok
drive (it worked whether I connected using E DB or the internal
text
file
converter).

A few questions:
a. are your mail merge document and data source in the same
network
folder?
b. how long is the pathname of the data source? e.g. longer or
shorter
than
the pathname you used when testing on a local drive? - the total
length
consists of all the charaters in

\\computername\sharename\folders`filename.ext

c. have any sorts or filters been applied to the data?
--

Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk
I'm having a very similar problem.

In Word 2003 (on a Windows 2003 network) we cannot save word
merge
files
with a user -assigned data source. One of the following will
happen:
1. Our Word Merge templates (the 'letter' part of the file)
are
copied
into
a client directory, and staff edits the file to 'link' to the
new
data
source
(text file with CSV). Staff saves the document. The next
time
the
staff
opens the document Word responds with 'Opening this document
will
run
the
following SQL Command' - as we would expect - but then we get
a
message
'Word
cannot find its data source ' - displaying the name of the
file
we
linked
in
- which we know is there - so staff selects 'Find Data Source'
and
re-opens
the file. WE GET THE SAME MESSAGE - Word cannot find its data
source.
The
only option is to remove the headers. But even after we do
that,
Word
Merge
cannot find the data source. We cannot save the Word merge
file
with
the
correct data source attached.

Here's the strange part. All our word files are saved to the
network -
the
templates and the data source. If I attached a data source
that's
on
my
local drive to the word file, there is no problem - the merge
file
with
the
new data source saves fine.

It's as if the merge file does not want a data source that's
on a
network
drive - or is it the path?


:

Well spotted on the incorrect display of the file path name,
but
unfortunately as far as I know it is a red herring and does
not
indicate
anything other than a fault in the display. Further, whether
the
Mailmerge
task pane displays the "long" data source location details or
just
the
short
file name depends on whether the data source is in what Word
thinks
is
the
"active" folder" (I think) - i.e. it is likely to change to
that
folder
if
you create a test .csv in Word and save it.

However, things are complicated by the fact that Word has a
number
of
different mechanisms for opening a .tx or .csv type file and
chooses
the
mechanism depending on the file content (I think). I don't
work
for
Microsoft or have have access to the source code, so I have
to
guess,
but
in
Word 2002(XP) and 2003, I believe Word will either use Word's
built-in
text
converter to read the file, or OLE DB. If it uses OLE DB, it
generates
a
"connection string" which contains the path name of the
folder
containing
the file. However, Word does not save the whole connection
string
(max
255
characters I think) and can truncate the pathname, so when
you
close
and
re-open the When you close the mail merge main document and
re-open
it,
Word
can't find the file.I'm not so sure that happens when Word
opens
the
file
using its converter.

Anyway, if you try putting the file in a folder with a short
pathname
I
think it will always work.

However, there could also be problems if Word does not
recognise
the
character encoding of your .csv file correctly - but let's
leave
that
for
now.

Peter Jamieson

Hi,

I'm having a problem getting Word to remember the link to
its
data
source for some files. It continually asks to locate the
data
source
and if you point it to the file it just continually loops
back
and
asks for the file location again. If you tell it "No" on
the
SQL
check dialog, the file opens and I can go to "Open Data
Source"
and
point to the file that way.

The merge document is a one page letter. The data is a
simple
csv
file with only 10 fields.

I've tried putting the csv file in the My Data Sources
folder
and
that
doesn't fix it.

I've tried using the registry setting to skip the SQL
check,
but
that
means I end up in the "Locate Data Source" loop with no way
of
opening
the file at all.

The closest thing I've come up with that sort of gets me to
a
work
around is that some of the field headings have an
underscore
in
them:
First_Name, Last_Name, Address_1, etc. However, if I make
a
new
csv
file in notepad and make the names with an _, it works
fine.
But
then
I get the second clue.

If I click on Tools | Letters and Mailings | Mail Merge to
get
the
Mail Merge side bar, step 3 has some weirdness. On the csv
file
that
does not work, the source that the recipients are currently
selected
from appears as:

[:\foldername\source.cs] in "source.csv"

If I make a csv file from scratch and do not use any
underscores,
that
line becomes just:

"test.csv"

But as soon as I change a field name in the working csv
file
to
contain and underscore it changes to:

[:\foldername\test.cs] in "test.csv"

It still works, probably because somewhere in the file it
remembers
that it used to work before I changed the file name, but
who
knows
at
this point.

Has anyone else run into something similar or know of a
fix?

 

[Mike DiCanio]

Sorry no it is not. Word 2003.

Is this also Word 2007?

 

[Peter Jamieson]

As far as I know, the main reasons why Word may have difficulty /re-/opening
a data source are
a. In Word 2002 there is a problem where the data source is lost if you
apply a filter or sort criteria to your data source. This may have been
fixed in a later SP, and I believe was fixed in Word 2003.
b. the connection information saved by Word when you close a working mail
merge main document is truncated in such a way that Word loses essential
information about the location of the data source

For example, by default Word 2002 and later use OLE DB providers to open as
many types of data source as possible, including Excel worksheets, Access
databases and plain text files. The OLE DB provider typically divides the
location of a data source into a "database" and a "table". So for example,
if the data source is...
a. ...an Access table, the "database" is the Access .mdb file that contains
all the data, and the table is a table or query within that .mdb
b. ...a text file, the "database" is the Windows folder that contains the
text file, and the .txt file itself is the "table"
c. ...an Excel worksheet, the "database" is the Excel workbook, and the
"table" is a worksheet, a named range, or perhaps a range specified in R1C1
format.

An application such as Word that uses OLE DB to get data usually specifies
the database part of the data source's locatoin in a /Connection string/,
and specifies the "table" part either simply by naming the table, or
specifying a SQL query that names the table.

So what goes wrong in Word? Well, Word constructs a connection string
containing whatever path name is required to specify the "database", and
uses it to open the document. But then when you save the Word document, it
truncates the connection string to 255 characters long. If the pathname of
the database file or folder is so long that it spans that 255 boundary, Word
in effect forgets where the database it.

What can you do about it? Well, unfortunately, you cannot shorten the
connection string by leaving out unnecessary information. Word always
includes certain properties even when they are not strictly necessary. So
the only things you can do are
a. use another method to make the connection (and every method has its
drawbacks - see e.g. http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk/t0003.htm for a discussion of
some of the issues surrounding connections to Excel files, for example)
b. give your data source a shorter name, or put it in a folder with a
shorter pathname, depending on exactly what typ eof data source it is.

There can in theory be other problems that would cause this problem, but in
most of those cases you would be unlikely to connect at all.

 

[Mike DiCanio]

Peter,

Can you tell me where the path to the data source is saved when I do the
following:

.. With my merge document open in Word 2003 I click Letters and Mailings on
the Tools menu, and then click Mail Merge.
In the Select recipients section of the Mail Merge Wizard (Step 3 of 6), I
select the Data Source by browsing to the location of the this .txt file on
my network drive then click through the next steps and save the document.

Also, could you tell me if any data source information is stored in my
Windows XP user profile?

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Can you tell me where the path to the data source is saved when I do the

following:

1. In the document, either completely or partially, either in clear text if
you save as .rtf, .xml or .htm, or in Word's binary format (actually it may
be a readable Unicode string - I don't know) if you save as .doc. The string
will be saved either in the connection string, or in the SQLStatement, or
split across the two, depending on how Word chose to make the connection (it
may choose to use OLE DB or its converter, and just possibly ODBC, depending
on the file).
2. the pathname may also be saved in various "recently accessed files" type
lists, e.g. in the Windows registry, but that's just my guess.

In the scenario you describe I would expect any such info to be stored in a
DSN, .udl or .odc file

Also, could you tell me if any data source information is stored in my
Windows XP user profile?

I'm not sure if the above answers your question. However, when you save a
mailmerge main doc. you /may find that data source info. is cached in the
..doc. If you save as .htm I think it looks more as if enough info. to
identify individaully selected records is stored (more or less).

 

[Mike DiCanio]

Peter,

Thanks for the reply. This information was helpful. I have previously
done, as you mentioned, saving the document as an HTML and then opening it as
text. The problem ended up being solved by the following microsoft support
doc.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834699

Thanks for all your help.

Mike

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Good feedback, thanks.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

There is definitely an error in this area. What happens in some cases is
this:
a. you open the Word document
b. Word cannot find the data source, so it prompts you (find it, or remove
the data source)
c. you find the data source.
d. you probably save the mail merge main document to try to save the new
daa source location.

Unfortunately, (d) does not always work as you would expect, Word seems to
retain the original daa source information and to treat the new data source
as "temporary".

One way tosave the document with the correect data source is to detach it
from its data source, e.g. using the mail merge toolbar in Word 2007 to
select the mail merge document type "Normal Word Document" - in 2007, it's
in one of the dropdowns in the Mailings tab. Then reconnect. You will lose
sorts and filters, and you have obviously lost the document type, but you do
not lose the field codes. Set up the data source how you want it, then save
the mail merge main document. Awkward, but I believe it works. (You can also
use VBA Activedocument.mailMerge.DataSource.Close in Word 2003/2007 to
achieve a similar effect without losing the document type).

--
Peter Jamieson
http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Jerry Garnett]

I have been able to create a merge document and save the data source using paths such as T:\Data\s1prod\word_us or U:\, with the template document and the data source (a .dat file) in the same folder. Although asked to confirm the data sources's location, when I click on 'Yes' the document opens using the relevant data source.

However, when I use a path like \\Studep1.isd.ad.flinders.edu.au\t1\S1\Data\s1accept43\word_us I still get asked to confirm the data source when opening the template but it doesn't recognise this path and asks me to select a new data source. I can re-select the same data source and generate a document but when I save the template and re-open it, the same process occurs. It looks like Word doesn't like either the long path or not using a Drive letter.

Any ideas?