WD2001: Changing the Data Source Forces the User to Replace or Remove All Invalid Merge Fields (272858)
The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Word 2001 for Macintosh
This article was previously published under Q272858 SYMPTOMS
When you change the data source of a merge document from the Office Address Book to a FileMaker Pro database, or visa versa, you are prompted to remove or replace each instance of any fields that do not belong to the new data source. For example, in a merge document with 30 labels per page, you must remove or replace 30 instances of each such invalid merge fields.
This behavior occurs when:
- You are switching the data source from an Office Address Book file to a FileMaker file, or visa versa.
and
- The View Merged Data button has been selected.
WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior, stop viewing the merged data before you change the Data Source.
If you have already started replacing or removing invalid merge fields, follow these steps:
- Click Cancel to close the Invalid Merge Field dialog box. You may receive the following error message:
Word was unable to open the data source.
- Click OK to close the error message.
Notice that the View Merged Data button is not available. - In the Data Merge Manager, click Get Data, and select the Data Source and the database fields that you want.
- If you are creating a Mailing Labels merge type document, in the Edit Labels dialog box, delete any invalid merge fields in the Sample label box, and then click Insert Merge Field to select and insert valid merge fields for your labels.
For other types of merge operations, delete any invalid merge fields from the merge document, and then drag valid merge fields from the Data Merge Manager to the document.
STATUSMicrosoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
| Modification Type: | Major | Last Reviewed: | 10/14/2002 |
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| Keywords: | kbbug KB272858 |
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