# Using Mail Merge to Permanently Link a word document to an excel spreadsheet



## fatgreta1066 (Nov 25, 2009)

Hi,

I've got an excel spreadsheet for date entry, and I have a number of word documents that I've used mail merge on, linking to that database. That way I can avoid repetitively typing in a client's name and DOB on every page of every form, for instance. 

Using Office 2003, I'm trying to get each document linked to the spreadsheet, so that I don't have to search for the data source every time I open the document. Is there any way to do that?

Thanks,

Chris


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## gistek (May 8, 2007)

Mail Merfe fields can be used for more than just creating envelopes, but they do have to have a source from which they fill in the fields.

You can insert hyperlinks to files in an excel file.


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## fatgreta1066 (Nov 25, 2009)

gistek said:


> Mail Merfe fields can be used for more than just creating envelopes, but they do have to have a source from which they fill in the fields.
> 
> You can insert hyperlinks to files in an excel file.


Hi,

Thanks for writing back. I'm not sure what you mean by insert hyperlinks? I have the mail merge set up already, and have been using it succesfully. When we switched to Office 2003, I found myself having to re-locate the source (excel) file every time I opened a document. I'm trying to figure out how to tell the word document to automatically look for the same file, every time, if that makes sense.

Thanks,

Chris


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## gistek (May 8, 2007)

Ah. I thought you were trying to find .doc files from your spreadsheet.

You should be able to create a macro that will re-link the .doc to the source .xls and make it available to all .doc's. I'm not really up on macros, though.


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## macropod (Apr 11, 2008)

Hi Chris,

After succesfully re-connecting to the source file, did you save the changes to the mailmerge main document? If you didn't that would certainly explain why you're having to re-establish the connection each time. If you did save the changes, try re-opening the mailmerge main document and deleting the header info when it complains that it can't find the source, after which you can use the mailmerge wizard to recreate the connection.


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