Word 2007 and 2010

Abstract

Microsoft altered the fundamental structure of Word documents with each new version of MS Word.  Capable 21C ships with the oldest of these formats to ensure backwards compatibility.  However, the newest versions of MS Word (eg 2007 and 2010) have features that can block Capable 21C's mailmerge functionality.  This article discusses steps to resolve these issues.

Underlying challenge

There are four fundamental blocks with Microsoft Word that may need to be resolved.  These are:

1. MS Word blocks all database data from being merged.
2. MS Word prevents Capable 21C from re-linking documents to the database.
3. MS Word fails to save documents once they have been successfully relinked.
4. MS Word cannot automatically print documents that are linked to older versions of an MS Access database.

Note that some of the resolution steps described in this document are technical in nature and may require some technical expertise to complete.

Resolution

Use the following instructions to resolve any/and/all of the issues described above:

MS Word Blocks all database data from being retrieved

This problem manifests itself either as an error reported by Capable (or by MS Word directly) indicating that MS Word is refusing to retrieve records from a SQL Query called MailMerge.

To fix this problem, add the following registry key to the Windows registry using RegEdit.

For Word 2007

DWORD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Offices\13.0\Word\Options\SQLSecurityCheck = 0

For Word 2010

DWORD HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Offices\14.0\Word\Options\SQLSecurityCheck = 0

MS Word prevents Capable 21C from re-linking documents to the database

Link the documents manually, and disable Capable 21C's feature to relink documents.

1. Go to Setup|Settings.
2. Click on the Other tab
3. Click on the WordDocs system component
4. Click on the setting called Skip Relink Documents.
5. Change the value of the setting to True
6. Click Close (no need to apply).

Also see below on how to save documents if manual re-link steps are failing.

MS Word prevents fixed documents from being saved

MS Word will not save documents with mail merge data correctly if they are stored in older versions of MS Word fomats.  To correct this, the documents should be opened one at a time and then saved into the current version of MS Word format.

Note that for MS Word 2007 and 2010, this results in the document filename being altered such that the extension is .DOCX (as opposed to .DOC).  Once this has occurred, Capable 21C must be updated to correctly reference the new filename.

For documents that ship with Capable 21C:

1. Go to Setup|Settings.
2. Click on the Other tab
3. Click on the WordDocs system component.
4. Click on the relevant document.
5. Change the setting to accurately reflect the new filename.
6. Click Close (no need to apply).

For documents that have been created since Capable 21C was installed:

1. Go to Setup|Setup document types.
2. Double click on the relevant document.
3. Click into the filename field and add the 'X' to the end of the filename.
4. Click Apply and Close.

MS Word cannot automatically print documents linked to older versions of an MS Access database

When MS Word first opens a mail merge document, it attempts to open MS Access if the underlying database is an Access database AND MS Access is installed on the PC.  If the database is an older database format, a warning message will pop up when this happens.  The popup message may not always be visible, and both MS Word and MS Access (and therefore Capable 21C) will jam until the pop up message has been handled.

To prevent this problem, convert the database to a more recent version of MS Access (eg Access 2003 is preferred), or un-install Access, or convert the database to SQL Server.

Detailed Information

No further detail.

Copyright 2008 Capable Software Pty Ltd

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