How do I resolve Contact folder data source issues? in Outlook Contacts    |   |  Help   Search For:     In:   Office   Outlook     Outlook General Questions     Outlook New Users     Outlook Business Contact Mngr     Outlook Calendaring     Outlook Contacts     Outlook Install and Configure     Outlook Programming-VBA     Outlook Programming-Forms              SJD30942 4/10/2006 8:34 PM PST   Question   When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels from my Contacts file I get the following message: "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be appreciated.     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] 4/10/2006 10:05 PM PST   Answer   Best practice is to start the merge in Outlook, using the Tools | Mail Merge command in a contacts folder, rather than in Word. -- Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx "SJD30942" <SJD30942@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3DF71376-7EF1-4EC5-BA5C-31FDAF3CCDE4@microsoft.com... > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels > from my Contacts file I get the following message: > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be > appreciated.     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           Sam 10/24/2007 5:16 AM PST   I am having the same issue. I have trried creating a document from outlook mail merge but the form in word is coming up blank. Thoughts? "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote: > Best practice is to start the merge in Outlook, using the Tools | Mail Merge command in a contacts folder, rather than in Word. > > -- > Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP > Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 > http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm > and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for > Administrators, Power Users, and Developers > http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx > > "SJD30942" <SJD30942@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:3DF71376-7EF1-4EC5-BA5C-31FDAF3CCDE4@microsoft.com... > > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels > > from my Contacts file I get the following message: > > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried > > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature > > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as > > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be > > appreciated. >     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]  10/24/2007 1:23 PM PST   You provided no information on what you did, what happened and what you thought should happen that didn't. Mail merges from Outlook work fine. Read the Help files. -- Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook] "Sam" <Sam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:CBBD690B-F282-4534-BE76-DD68A31AA5F3@microsoft.com... >I am having the same issue. I have trried creating a document from outlook > mail merge but the form in word is coming up blank. > > Thoughts? > > "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote: > >> Best practice is to start the merge in Outlook, using the Tools | Mail >> Merge command in a contacts folder, rather than in Word. >> >> -- >> Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP >> Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 >> http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm >> and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for >> Administrators, Power Users, and Developers >> http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx >> >> "SJD30942" <SJD30942@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message >> news:3DF71376-7EF1-4EC5-BA5C-31FDAF3CCDE4@microsoft.com... >> > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing >> > labels >> > from my Contacts file I get the following message: >> > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried >> > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this >> > feature >> > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as >> > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions >> > will be >> > appreciated. >>     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           SJD30942 4/11/2006 4:08 PM PST   Thank you Sue Mosher. Your info gave me another way to accomplish my needs. By playing with it I discovered A Corel Address Book that I no longer needed so I deleted it. Everything seems to work through Microsoft Office Word 2003 as well as Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 as advertised. Thanks aqain for taking the time to respond and end my frustrations. "SJD30942" wrote: > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels > from my Contacts file I get the following message: > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be > appreciated.     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           MikeL 4/1/2007 5:17 PM PST   I'm having the same trouble you stated you had...the mail merge wizard in Word 2003 has been working fine for well over a year and then, suddenly last week, I am getting the error about unable to obtain list of tables from the data source. I have run the detect and repair feature and even reinstalled Office 2003. No luck. I don't have any other address books. It may very well be best to start from Outlook to do a mail merge but I'm, frankly, disturbed that no one seems to know what has gone wrong with the wizard in Word. I saw on some site that Microsoft is aware of the problem, but there are no solutions posted, and this problem has been on the posts for quite some time. I thought I might just as well bite the bullet and purchase Office 2007, but it looks like the problem exists in that version as well. Any thoughts? -- gyroman "SJD30942" wrote: > Thank you Sue Mosher. Your info gave me another way to accomplish my needs. > By playing with it I discovered A Corel Address Book that I no longer needed > so I deleted it. Everything seems to work through Microsoft Office Word 2003 > as well as Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 as advertised. Thanks aqain for > taking the time to respond and end my frustrations. > > "SJD30942" wrote: > > > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels > > from my Contacts file I get the following message: > > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried > > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature > > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as > > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be > > appreciated.     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top           MikeL 4/2/2007 8:13 AM PST   This is a followup to my earlier post. I don't know if this had the effect of screwing up the Word mail merge wizard, but last week sometime, I got an error message when I opened Outlook that my Personal Folder. pst file had not been properly shut down last time (or something to that effect). The computer did a self-analysis of the file and then it opened as usual, no problems. Just food for thought. Incidentally, I tried using the Word 2003 mail merge wizard on my home computer and it still works fine. It is only on my work laptop that the problem has occurred. -- gyroman "MikeL" wrote: > I'm having the same trouble you stated you had...the mail merge wizard in > Word 2003 has been working fine for well over a year and then, suddenly last > week, I am getting the error about unable to obtain list of tables from the > data source. I have run the detect and repair feature and even reinstalled > Office 2003. No luck. I don't have any other address books. It may very well > be best to start from Outlook to do a mail merge but I'm, frankly, disturbed > that no one seems to know what has gone wrong with the wizard in Word. I saw > on some site that Microsoft is aware of the problem, but there are no > solutions posted, and this problem has been on the posts for quite some time. > I thought I might just as well bite the bullet and purchase Office 2007, but > it looks like the problem exists in that version as well. Any thoughts? > -- > gyroman > > > "SJD30942" wrote: > > > Thank you Sue Mosher. Your info gave me another way to accomplish my needs. > > By playing with it I discovered A Corel Address Book that I no longer needed > > so I deleted it. Everything seems to work through Microsoft Office Word 2003 > > as well as Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 as advertised. Thanks aqain for > > taking the time to respond and end my frustrations. > > > > "SJD30942" wrote: > > > > > When using Microsoft Office Word 2003 for Mail Merge to create mailing labels > > > from my Contacts file I get the following message: > > > "Unable to obtain a list of tables from the data source." I've tried > > > everything and am becoming more frustrated each day. I'd used this feature > > > many times last year so I know it did work as advertised. It appears as > > > though something has become out of sync? Any help and/or suggestions will be > > > appreciated.     Was this post helpful to you?         Reply |   Top         Return to Microsoft Communities   Notify me of replies