Going back a few steps, we another experiment you can try is this:
a. open one of the .doc documents that has the problem.
b. go through all the steps necessary to reconnect
c. use Tools|Templates and Add-ins to see what template the document is
attached to. The name, or pathname, of the template should be in the first
textbox (what I previously called a field) to the left of a Browse...
button. If that field is greyed out, your .doc is actually a template. But
assuming it is not, use the browse button to look for the Normal template
and attach that instead.
d. close the .doc
e. re-open it. Do you still see the problem?
--
Peter Jamieson
wrote in message
...
I got rid of "confirm conversion at open" and it does not
ask for the data source for the .htm version.
Odd.
I will try fiddling around and see if I can change
anything. Maybe I'll try taking the mail merge out,
saving the .dot as .doc and re-merging it, then saving
it. Maybe that will help.
-----Original Message-----
Any other ideas?
None that are likely to lead straight away to The
Answer, but just out of
interest, if you uncheck Word
Tools|Options|General|"Confirm conversion at
open", then open the .htm version of the file, does Word
still complain that
it cannot find the data source?
Wow. That is quite neat! I wouldn't have thought of
doing
that.
I got the idea from Cindy Meister.
--
Peter Jamieson
"Rachael" wrote in
message
...
Wow. That is quite neat! I wouldn't have thought of
doing
that.
Here is what I got:
w:MailMergeQueryStringSELECT * FROM C:\Documents
and
Settings\ptorrxc\My Documents\Rachael\Claimant
Information Data Base 2.doc/w:MailMergeQueryString
w:MailMergeDataSource
HRef="C:\Documents and Settings\ptorrxc\My
Documents\Rachael\Claimant Information Data Base
2.doc"/w:MailMergeDataSource
I tried it with both the .doc files and the .dot files
(my government files), and both had the same thing
written.
I tried it with the one and only file I know that does
not ask me for the database each time, and it was the
same as well.
Any other ideas?
-----Original Message-----
Hello Rachael,
OK, we're in danger of talking at cross-purposes here,
so for the moment I'm
not going to try to answer all your questions and
points.
Can you please try to do the following:
a. open one of the documents (.doc) that is connected
to your data source.
Assuming it has lost its data source in the way you
have
described,
reconnect it to the data source. But don't save it,
and
don't do a merge.
b. Click File|Save As, and use the "Save as Type"
drop-
down list at the
bottom of the dialog box to select the file type "Web
Page (*.htm, *.html).
The type a name such as myfile.htm in the File Name
box.
Notice where Word
is saving this file, and click Save.
c. Go into Word Tools|Options|General and
check "Confirm conversions at
open".
d. re-open myfile.htm (e.g. from the list of recently
opened files in the
Word FIle menu. You should see a dialog box
titled "Convert file". Select
"Plain Text" and click OK.
e. you should now see the "source code" of your
document in HTML format. It
won't look anything like your actual document, but
will
probably start
html xmlns
="urn..."
Look down the document about 30 lines or so and you
should see lines that
show various pieces of information about the mail
merge
data source, e.g.
the lines starting
w:MailMergeMainDocType
w:MailMergeQueryString
etc. Can you please tell us what the few lines after
w:MailMergeQueryString
and
w:MailMergeDataSource
say?
And/or cut and paste these lines in a message and post
them here.
I am expecting the MailMergeQueryString to look
something like
SELECT * FROM the full path name of your data source
document
and the MailMergeDataSource to look lke
HRef="the full path name of your data source"
If there is a problem with the path name being too
long,
you may see that
the name is truncated in one or the other of those
texts. If neither is
truncated, thepath name length probably isn't the
problem.
Finally,
In terms of the template, I didn't create the
template,
it's government. And it always needs to be attached
to
the datasource. I work under a strict government
legislation which legislates which information has
to
be
on which form and we are not allowed to change it
(unfortunately). As well, because of the nature of
the
job, I have to send out these government forms with
every
piece of mail I send. I even have a legislation that
tells me what items HAVE to be on my fax covers
(there's
a list of about 20 items) (and we actually get in
trouble
if information is missing!!)
OK, it's clear that if you have to use a specific
predefined template then
if there is a problem with the template then it may be
impossible to solve
unless someone is allowed to change it. But I get the
impression from what
you have said that you are allowed to change some
aspects of a template. For
example, if the template is connected to a data
source,
it will be connected
to a specific file in a specific location in your
folders. But if you have a
typical WIndows configuration where your documents are
stored in My
Documents, the full path name of /your/ "My Documents"
folder will almost
certainly contain some form of logon or user name.
Since
that name will be
different for each user, each user's copy of the
template would either have
to be a bit different, or would (probably) have to
have
a macro that would
work out the full path name of the data source.
Peter Jamieson
.