Is the query sitting in a .mde or a .mdb file?

This can happen for a variety of reasons, not all of which are covered by Microsoft documentation. In particular, if you have Access security active, things can get sticky. For what ever reason, Word will often try to start a new instance of Access. In fact, this will always happen if you change the application name in the Tools/Startup dialog box to something other than Microsoft Access. Another reason is if the query doesn’t return any records. Mail merge is a great tool, but it can also be a real pain in the neck.

I have some mail merge letters (Word docs) that are linked through Access, which contains linked tables (ODBC). The actual tables exist on an IBM mainframe. When I open any of these documents, Access also opens, and I get a logon dialogue box for userid and password. Are you required to log on in order to view the results of your query? Are you trying to open the Access query as your mail merge datasource, or are you trying to open the tables through ODBC? In other words, in Word, are you choosing your Access mdb file as the datasource?

I find it much better to run ‘transfertext’ to a .txt file and then ‘runapp’ (or shell) to open the Word file which is merged with the specific .txt file. Otherwise I always found that Word tried to open Access again and all sorts of little annoyances occurred. You can do it with a macro or code whichever is easier for you.
Peter Herworth

I’ve found that starting from the source is the easiest solution. I hope this answer is what your looking for, I am not sure. But If I want an Access query to be merged to Word to use in a Mail Merge…I start with the Access query IN ACCESS…makes a big difference…
1. Click once on your access query in Access to highlight it.
2. Look on the Standard toolbar for a Big Blue W Icon, and click on it.
3. Choose “Merge to Word”, and when the next dialog comes up, say to Link to either an existing Document that you have open, or a brand new one if you haven’t started your letter in word yet.
4. When you click the Ok button, Word will open, and then likely Minimize itself to the Taskbar.
5. Click on the Word Button on the Taskbar to maximize it, and you will see a new mailmerge toolbar already in place at the top of the screen, and the first icon on it will allow you to pick your fields from the ones you have in your Access query.
6. Any changes in your Tables in the Access Database of course reflect in your query, which will also reflect now in your Word document.

Hope this helps
Nannette Padgett