Word forgets mail merge data file location

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Can anyone help me with this problem that I have suffered for a long time. I frequently use Word (both 2002 and 2003) to produce mail merge documents where the data source is an Excel spreadsheet (located in another folder on the same drive). This works very well and I always save the Word file when I finish using the document.

However, when I reopen the Word document I always get an error message which says it cannot find the data source, and so I have to manually navigate it back to the right file.

How can I get word to remember the data file location?

Any ideas? Thanks.

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Are you saving the Main Merge document after you have connected to the data source and performed the merge? If so, Word should remember the data source the next time you open the document.

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Yes, I always do that. That’s the funny thing!

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Are the Excel files by chance on a network drive where the might be a permissions issue? That’s about the only reason I can think of where Word would fail to find the files. Another option you might try is to actually create a saved Data Source. That gets stored in your documents folder in the “My Data Sources” folder, and will have an appropriate file extension. You didn’t specify what version(s) of Windows you are using, but that should work for XP, Vista or Win7.

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Thanks. I was using one of the mail merge documents today (XP Pro and Office 2003) and the data spreadsheet is actually in the same folder as the document! However, the system always asks me to find the data source (starting at the ‘my data sources’ folder) when I open the document. Looks as if I’ll just have to live with it, although I guess if I put a shortcut to the appropriate folder in the ‘my data sources’ folder, that will perhaps save me some navigation time!

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