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Office 2007 and Mail Merge with SharePoint

29 November, 2007 (03:09) | SharePoint | By: Paul Liebrand

I have been working with Microsoft Premier support on an issue around performing a mail merge with a Word document and Excel document stored in a SharePoint (WSS 3.0 or MOSS 2007) team site.

According premier support, they are unable to 100% duplicate my issue. However, I am convinced this is a problem.  I have conducted this test in a number of environments and configurations and always land up with the same result.

So I am going to outline the issue here, and then ask for feedback from the community to see how many others are / are not experiencing it.

Setup

  1. Created a default Team Site
  2. Created an Excel document with two data fields (First Name and Last Name) and some dummy data that will be used for mail merge.
  3. Created a blank Word document

Steps

  1. Edit the blank Word Document
  2. Click Mailings
  3. Click Select Recipients and Use existing list
  4. For the filename, type http://sharepointsite and hit enter
  5. Navigate to the Excel document, select it, and click Open

I get presented with the following error message:

image

Other Tests

Please can anyone else in the SharePoint community confirm or deny that this is also happening to them?

UPDATE 10/24/2007

I worked with a new guy from Microsoft today regarding this issue and apparently mail merge does not support HTTP. He also told me not to expect it to get fixed in Office 2007 and they are going to try getting mail merge over HTTP implemented in the next version (no guarantee’s).

I am still working with the gentlemen on another workaround that used to work awhile ago and I will provide an update on that when I know more.

UPDATE 11/1/2007

We reached several dead ends on this issue.  Basically, the only way to do a mail merge with a document stored in a SharePoint site is to either access the file directly via UNC, or through a mapped network drive to the SharePoint site. The engineer told me that he has requested that this be made as an enhancement to a future version of Office.


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  • MadBoy

    Hello All,

    I’ve this problem with my collegue at work who wants to keep 2 documents on Sharepoint. One is .XLS and is the data source and one is word. When he had those 2 documents on his hdd the source was working fine. When he moved the WOrd document to Sharepoint it was still working fine for him but not for other people. So we uploaded the .XLS file to sharepoint aswell and renamed the XLS file on his computer (so we knew it would work from share and not locally).

    I tried pointing to file on sharepoint (changing the source from LOCAL TO UNC PATH) serveral times but and in the end i ended up trying:
    * UNC directly to the file opens it successfully (i.e.:\sharepointsiteShared DocumentsData.xlsx)

    And it worked fine. However when i saved and closed document and reopen word again i always get prompted for the data source. It always tries to point to LOCAL source where the file first existed, it never saves the location of UNC path. If i enter the uncpath again it works fine but it works until i close the doc. Anyone can help with this?

  • MadBoy

    Hello All,

    I’ve this problem with my collegue at work who wants to keep 2 documents on Sharepoint. One is .XLS and is the data source and one is word. When he had those 2 documents on his hdd the source was working fine. When he moved the WOrd document to Sharepoint it was still working fine for him but not for other people. So we uploaded the .XLS file to sharepoint aswell and renamed the XLS file on his computer (so we knew it would work from share and not locally).

    I tried pointing to file on sharepoint (changing the source from LOCAL TO UNC PATH) serveral times but and in the end i ended up trying:
    * UNC directly to the file opens it successfully (i.e.:\sharepointsiteShared DocumentsData.xlsx)

    And it worked fine. However when i saved and closed document and reopen word again i always get prompted for the data source. It always tries to point to LOCAL source where the file first existed, it never saves the location of UNC path. If i enter the uncpath again it works fine but it works until i close the doc. Anyone can help with this?

  • MadBoy

    Hello All,

    I’ve this problem with my collegue at work who wants to keep 2 documents on Sharepoint. One is .XLS and is the data source and one is word. When he had those 2 documents on his hdd the source was working fine. When he moved the WOrd document to Sharepoint it was still working fine for him but not for other people. So we uploaded the .XLS file to sharepoint aswell and renamed the XLS file on his computer (so we knew it would work from share and not locally).

    I tried pointing to file on sharepoint (changing the source from LOCAL TO UNC PATH) serveral times but and in the end i ended up trying:
    * UNC directly to the file opens it successfully (i.e.:\\sharepointsite\Shared Documents\Data.xlsx)

    And it worked fine. However when i saved and closed document and reopen word again i always get prompted for the data source. It always tries to point to LOCAL source where the file first existed, it never saves the location of UNC path. If i enter the uncpath again it works fine but it works until i close the doc. Anyone can help with this?

  • Lisa E

    Thanks so much for the post! We had the same errors.

    I had a team attempting to use the Mail Merge wizard & create a mail list on the fly. This posed a number of problems. First I had to unblock the .mdb file type on our farm by following the instructions on Sean’s Blog: http://geekswithblogs.net/seanfao/archive/2007/11/12/116814.aspx.

    Then I created a mapped drive to the site ie. http://Moss2007/Site (left off the /default.aspx as it didn’t seem to like it). Now mail merge works like a dream! The team simply saves & retreives the source files from the mapped drive.

    Thanks for the great workaround idea Paul. :)

  • Lisa E

    Thanks so much for the post! We had the same errors.

    I had a team attempting to use the Mail Merge wizard & create a mail list on the fly. This posed a number of problems. First I had to unblock the .mdb file type on our farm by following the instructions on Sean’s Blog: http://geekswithblogs.net/seanfao/archive/2007/11/12/116814.aspx.

    Then I created a mapped drive to the site ie. http://Moss2007/Site (left off the /default.aspx as it didn’t seem to like it). Now mail merge works like a dream! The team simply saves & retreives the source files from the mapped drive.

    Thanks for the great workaround idea Paul. :)

  • Lisa E

    Thanks so much for the post! We had the same errors.

    I had a team attempting to use the Mail Merge wizard & create a mail list on the fly. This posed a number of problems. First I had to unblock the .mdb file type on our farm by following the instructions on Sean’s Blog: http://geekswithblogs.net/seanfao/archive/2007/11/12/116814.aspx.

    Then I created a mapped drive to the site ie. http://Moss2007/Site (left off the /default.aspx as it didn’t seem to like it). Now mail merge works like a dream! The team simply saves & retreives the source files from the mapped drive.

    Thanks for the great workaround idea Paul. :)

  • Lisa E

    Quick update…
    Apparently .mdb files are quirky on Moss 2007 so we are using the new Office 2007 version for both the Word doc & the Access Database. The .accdb file extension is already enabled so you won’t have to hassle with unblocking .mdb as I posted above. :)

    Also just want to clarify that we did not use “network places”, we actually mapped a drive using “My Computer” > Tools > Map Network Drive. That is the trick to making it all work.

  • Lisa E

    Quick update…
    Apparently .mdb files are quirky on Moss 2007 so we are using the new Office 2007 version for both the Word doc & the Access Database. The .accdb file extension is already enabled so you won’t have to hassle with unblocking .mdb as I posted above. :)

    Also just want to clarify that we did not use “network places”, we actually mapped a drive using “My Computer” > Tools > Map Network Drive. That is the trick to making it all work.

  • Lisa E

    Quick update…
    Apparently .mdb files are quirky on Moss 2007 so we are using the new Office 2007 version for both the Word doc & the Access Database. The .accdb file extension is already enabled so you won’t have to hassle with unblocking .mdb as I posted above. :)

    Also just want to clarify that we did not use “network places”, we actually mapped a drive using “My Computer” > Tools > Map Network Drive. That is the trick to making it all work.

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    We opted not to use the mapped drive option because we have so many different users who go to so many different places that it would not work in our environment. However, we do use it if people REALLY need to use this functionality. I am glad you found this useful.

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    We opted not to use the mapped drive option because we have so many different users who go to so many different places that it would not work in our environment. However, we do use it if people REALLY need to use this functionality. I am glad you found this useful.

  • http://liebrand.wordpress.com liebrand

    We opted not to use the mapped drive option because we have so many different users who go to so many different places that it would not work in our environment. However, we do use it if people REALLY need to use this functionality. I am glad you found this useful.

  • Miguel Gomez

    In our company we are having the same problem. We need to share a xls file and a word document to print several notes via mail merge. We share this information via the company’s intranet for 4 different provinces and each province needs to print thier client’s notes. We had to send via mail the 2 archives for each province’s responsable cause I wasn´t able to mail merge via Sharepoint…I am dissapointed with this.
    Gretings for all!

  • Miguel Gomez

    In our company we are having the same problem. We need to share a xls file and a word document to print several notes via mail merge. We share this information via the company’s intranet for 4 different provinces and each province needs to print thier client’s notes. We had to send via mail the 2 archives for each province’s responsable cause I wasn´t able to mail merge via Sharepoint…I am dissapointed with this.
    Gretings for all!

  • http://donthave Miguel Gomez

    In our company we are having the same problem. We need to share a xls file and a word document to print several notes via mail merge. We share this information via the company’s intranet for 4 different provinces and each province needs to print thier client’s notes. We had to send via mail the 2 archives for each province’s responsable cause I wasn´t able to mail merge via Sharepoint…I am dissapointed with this.
    Gretings for all!

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    There are already Web Parts developed for this which will save you all the hassle

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    Best to contact Link Software or me

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    There are already Web Parts developed for this which will save you all the hassle

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    Best to contact Link Software or me

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    There are already Web Parts developed for this which will save you all the hassle

  • http://www.linksoftware.co.uk/ Matthew Gordon

    Best to contact Link Software or me

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    Matthew,

    Thank you for letting us know about your web part. However, I still think 99% of the people are trying to mail merge between an Excel / Word document stored in SharePoint, not with a list of SharePoint data.

    I could be wrong, but it appears that your web parts mail merge from SharePoint lists in Office documents.

    Thanks,

    Paul Liebrand

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    Matthew,

    Thank you for letting us know about your web part. However, I still think 99% of the people are trying to mail merge between an Excel / Word document stored in SharePoint, not with a list of SharePoint data.

    I could be wrong, but it appears that your web parts mail merge from SharePoint lists in Office documents.

    Thanks,

    Paul Liebrand

  • http://liebrand.wordpress.com liebrand

    Matthew,

    Thank you for letting us know about your web part. However, I still think 99% of the people are trying to mail merge between an Excel / Word document stored in SharePoint, not with a list of SharePoint data.

    I could be wrong, but it appears that your web parts mail merge from SharePoint lists in Office documents.

    Thanks,

    Paul Liebrand

  • http://www.xanga.com/aus_chick auschick

    aha! thank you for the mapping work around – that fixed it!

  • http://www.xanga.com/aus_chick auschick

    aha! thank you for the mapping work around – that fixed it!

  • http://www.xanga.com/aus_chick auschick

    aha! thank you for the mapping work around – that fixed it!

  • Dan

    Thanks for this; another quirky Microsoft product….

  • Dan

    Thanks for this; another quirky Microsoft product….

  • Dan

    Thanks for this; another quirky Microsoft product….

  • chris

    it's getting worse…the unc-mapping-workaround doesn't work windows 7 with office 2007
    i also tested windows 7 with office 2010 and the bug still exists

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    That's pretty discouraging. Thank you for making us aware.

  • chris

    it's getting worse…the unc-mapping-workaround doesn't work windows 7 with office 2007
    i also tested windows 7 with office 2010 and the bug still exists

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    That's pretty discouraging. Thank you for making us aware.

  • Jason Friend

    It seems mapping a drive in WinXP works fine for everyone here in my office. I have one person on Vista Business and even though the mapped drive was set to reconnect on login it doesn't reconnect. As a band-aid for now I created a batch file that creates the mapped drive everytime that person logs into the computer. I don't like doing that, but at least it's working in the meantime.

    We are going to move everyone to Windows 7 sometime this year and hearing from Chris that the problem still exists with Office 2007/2010 does not bode well.

  • http://www.paulliebrand.com Paul Liebrand

    I spoke with Microsoft about this issue about 2 years ago and they acknowledged the disconnect but they did not seem like they were in a rush to resolve the issue.

    It's unfortunate.

  • Panoone

    That’s not the only thing that’s broken in Windows 7. :)

  • djohnd

    Try replacing http with file. Your document name will go from this http://sharepointsite/Shared%20Documents/Data.xlsx to file://sharepointsite/Shared%20Documents/Data.xlsx

  • Pierre Audette

    Typing the UNC address \sharepointsiteShare%20Documentsdata.xls worked for me