WD: Excel Worksheet Data Source Saves as MacWord Document

ID: Q121699

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word for the Macintosh, version 6.0
Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

If you use a Microsoft Excel worksheet as a mail merge data source, Microsoft Word saves the worksheet in Word document format if you click Yes when prompted to save the data source. In other words, Word overwrites the Microsoft Excel worksheet with a Word document if you click Yes in response to the following message:

   <Document Name> is a mail merge main document that is attached
   to a data source <Worksheet Name> that has not been saved. Do
   you want to save <Worksheet Name>?

Word does not warn you that the Microsoft Excel worksheet will be overwritten with a Word document.

This does not happen with Word for Windows.

WORKAROUND

If your mail merge data source is a Microsoft Excel worksheet, do not modify it by clicking the Edit Data Source button on the Mail Merge toolbar in Word. Instead, open the worksheet in Microsoft Excel, modify it, and then save it in Microsoft Excel.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word User's Guide," version 6.0, pages 704-706 (part number WB60460-0794)

Additional query words:

Keywords          : kbinterop macword98 kbmerge macword word6 
Version           : MACINTOSH:6.0
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: February 18, 1998