Access to Word Mail Merge problem

[fuglyjowls]

I am using Access 2003 and am not a techie so be gentle with me

I have a strange problem which I list below. The database is on a server and all the computers linked to the server can open the database no problem.

In order to produce our brochure request letters each day I click on a button marked "brochure" in the main database page, this then produces a box with the current date in it automatically and another button marked "brochure". I then click that button and the programme "Word" opens automatically. I then File Open to get to the word document "brochure letters.doc" and click OK then the document opens. It is a merged document and it automatically merges the current day’s requests into the document and the top of it has the mailmerge toolbar and if I click the merge to printer icon it prints all of that day’s requests.

All fine so far BUT the problem is that I can only do this from my computer. If I try to do it from anyone else’s computer it all goes fine and exactly the same as above until the word document opens and it has not merged – it has the information of the first brochure request of the day in it but not the subsequent ones.

This is a complete pain to be honest as we now have a new member of staff who I would like to hand over the brochure stuff to but at the moment she can’t do it on her computer. I am hoping you will be able to give me a simple answer!! Any suggestions would be gratefully received!

 

[DCrake]

It could be that the links between the word document and the access data needs refreshing or that the path back to Access is different on the newly hosted machines.

 

[fuglyjowls]

It could be that the links between the word document and the access data needs refreshing or that the path back to Access is different on the newly hosted machines.

Thank you for the reply - can you explain to me how would I refresh the link or check the path or is it something I would need any expert for?

 

[fuglyjowls]

Can anyone help further, please?

 

[neileg]

Where is the datafile created that the Word document uses as its datasource?

 

[fuglyjowls]

Where is the datafile created that the Word document uses as its datasource?

Sorry - I don't know how to find this out.

 

[neileg]

Open your Word document and look in Data Source on the merge toolbar.

 

[fuglyjowls]

Open your Word document and look in Data Source on the merge toolbar.

Thanks Neil - I have looked at it and it says:

[qrybrochure] in "customer.mdb!QUERY qrybrochure"

 

[fuglyjowls]

Anyone???? I'm getting desperate now as I have asked the company who do our technical support to look at it and they don't know the problem (but they are not too good at Access anyway).

 

[neileg]

There are a number of issues here but I'm not sure which one relates to your problem.
- Having a single Access mdb file for everyone to open from the server is not a good approach. You should split the databse into a front end and back end and give everyone their own copy of the front end. However, this is usually to stop data corruption rather that a lack of functionality.
- Since the path to the database in the mailmerge connecction does not include the server and folder, i.e. does not look like \\Myserver\myfolder\customer.mdb!QUERY qrybrochure, then I think DCrake is correct that there is a path problem.
- Before you go any further, try running qrybrochure on each users machine to check that it does return data. If it doesn't, it's a database issue, if it does it's probably a path issue

 

[TIbbs]

If there is no path when you look at the location, I hazard a guess that the file is stored in your current front end of the database.
Check to see if the other users have the file stored in the same location as their database front end. If that is not the case then maybe the path is wrong as sugested before. That can be solved by copying the word file to the same location.
But if the file is saved in the same front end, effectively they are different copies, which implies any changes made to the document cannot be seen by other users. However if the file is saved in the server then you can only access the file one at a time, and any changes that are made can be overwritten by the another user.

HTH