Word Mail Merge & DDE Commands
I have a mail merge setup with my main document in Word 2000 and the data in an Excel 2000 spreadsheet. I've had the same document merge setup on many computers for the past several years. Suddenly, on one computer, when opening the main Word document, it hangs with "Waiting for Microsoft Excel to accept DDE commands". I can open the Excel document by itself but not the Word document. The only way I've able to fix this in the past by completely uninstalling and reinstalling Office. No changes are made to the main document or the Excel data file.
Why does it suddenly stop working? There must be an easier way to fix this than uninstalling and reinstalling Office, especially because all of the installations are are remote offices.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Rich
Why does it suddenly stop working? There must be an easier way to fix this than uninstalling and reinstalling Office, especially because all of the installations are are remote offices.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thanks,
Rich
It sounds as though one of the DLL files are corrupting which are used in the Mail Merge. It should not be necessary to uninstall and reinstall. Instead, open Word or Excel and choose the Help menu, then choose the Detect and Repair option.
Dawn Crosier-Bleuel
Word MVP
Dawn Crosier-Bleuel
Word MVP
ASKER
Dawn,
I tried the REPAIR option from Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, I was not aware of the Detect and Repair option in the Word Help menu. Unfortunately, I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the program which has resolved the issue. I will definitely try this the next time this comes up.
Thanks for your help!
Rich
I tried the REPAIR option from Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, I was not aware of the Detect and Repair option in the Word Help menu. Unfortunately, I've already uninstalled and reinstalled the program which has resolved the issue. I will definitely try this the next time this comes up.
Thanks for your help!
Rich
Hi Rich -
The detect and repair option is much less painful than uninstalling and re-installing. You may also want to change the Word settings so that you are prompted to identify the connection protocol when connecting to your Excel document. (Tools, Options, General - "Confirm Conversion at Open") Then you should recieve a prompt regarding whether to use DDE or OBDC to connect to Excel.
Hopefully that will solve your problem.
Dawn Crosier-Bleuel
Word MVP
The detect and repair option is much less painful than uninstalling and re-installing. You may also want to change the Word settings so that you are prompted to identify the connection protocol when connecting to your Excel document. (Tools, Options, General - "Confirm Conversion at Open") Then you should recieve a prompt regarding whether to use DDE or OBDC to connect to Excel.
Hopefully that will solve your problem.
Dawn Crosier-Bleuel
Word MVP
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