OL98: Mail Merge Errors from Outlook Contacts File

• Microsoft Outlook 98
• Microsoft Word for Windows

SYMPTOMS

You attempt to do a mail merge with Microsoft Word 97 using as your data source a comma-separated values file exported from a Microsoft Outlook 98 Contacts database. When you attempt to attach the data source, you receive an initial error:

Word was unable to open the data source

CAUSE

There is not a problem with the file exported from Outlook. If it is installed, Word will use the 32-bit Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers for converting most data sources. These drivers have difficulty reading Windows 95 file names that do not display extensions.

RESOLUTION

To show MS-DOS file extensions, follow these steps,

1. Right-click the Start button and on the shortcut menu click Explore.



2. On the View menu, click Options and then View.



3. Click to clear the "Hide MS-DOS extensions for file types that are registered" check box. Click Apply and then OK.

REFERENCES

For more information on Importing and Exporting Text, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q179556 OL98: How to Import and Export Text Data with Outlook

Q137385 WD97: Error Using Text Data Source with ODBC Driver

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbinterop 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb 

Last Reviewed: August 3, 1999