Data Merge in Word 2004 for Mac

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Natalia R. - 24 Aug 2006 22:35 GMT

Hi,

I want to do a mail merge on my Microsoft Word 2004 for Macs. I used the
office assistant and <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=275013"
target="_new">also read this document on the Microsoft help & support website
to figure out how to do this.</a>

Unfortunately, my "Tools" pull-down menu has NO option titled "Data Merge
Manager." (I tried to click on "Merge Documents" but this doesn't have
anything to do with data/mail merge. In fact, this window won't even allow
me to select Excel documents.)

Here's what I have:
<img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/internautte/Picture1.gif">

What's up with that? I'm quite familiar with the concept of mail merge,
although I have never done it on Microsoft Word for Macs. Any help with this
would be very much appreciated. I have a lot of work to do, and I'd like to
get moving!

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Elliott Roper - 24 Aug 2006 22:57 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> would be very much appreciated. I have a lot of work to do, and I'd like to
> get moving!

What an excellent way to describe your problem! Definitely worth a
thousand words.

Tools » Customize » Menus and Toolbars » Toolbars » reset
should give you the complete set of menus back.

You are not the first to experience this. Some magic sneaks up in the
dead of night and steals random menu items from Word.

I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

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Corentin Cras-Méneur - 24 Aug 2006 23:30 GMT

> I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

LOL!!!!! Excellent!!!!! :-)

Corentin

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Natalia R. - 25 Aug 2006 06:41 GMT

Thank you. I appreciate the clarity of your advice, and the compliment! So
... I tried it ... here's the evidence :)

<img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/internautte/Picture3.gif">

And I am still getting the exact same pull-down menu on the Toolbar. Data
Merge Manager still isn't there. :/

Anything else I can try?

> > Hi,
> >
[quoted text clipped - 26 lines]
>
> I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

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Daiya Mitchell - 25 Aug 2006 08:09 GMT

How wonderfully helpful, posting screenshots. :) Seriously.

Make sure you didn't accidentally turn on "Word 5.1 Menus". Look under View
to see if there's a check next to that option.

If that's works, how it happened is explained here:
http://word.mvps.org/mac/SpellCheck.html#NoToolsLanguage

I think that's probably the magic Elliott mentioned.

Daiya

> Thank you. I appreciate the clarity of your advice, and the compliment! So
> ... I tried it ... here's the evidence :)
[quoted text clipped - 38 lines]
>>
>> I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

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Natalia R. - 28 Aug 2006 17:06 GMT

Wow, something simple as this worked. I have so many more menu options now!
DUH. Fantastic. Thanks. Got all my work done!

> How wonderfully helpful, posting screenshots. :) Seriously.
>
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
> >>
> >> I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

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Elliott Roper - 25 Aug 2006 09:26 GMT

<snip>

> ... I tried it ... here's the evidence :)
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Anything else I can try?

That is a puzzlement. I tried to find "Data Merge Manager" in the
customize dialog without success. I tried a couple of these:
http://www.yrl.co.uk/~elliott/customize.jpg
but they resulted in different menu items.
You might try looking there yourself, just in case it only lists the
data merge manager in customize when it is not already in the menu. I
think that is unlikely, but I am not brave enough to try it, in case I
can't get my merge manager back. I would miss it terribly.

For comparison, this is what my tools menu looks like before and after
reset.
http://www.yrl.co.uk/~elliott/cfnatalia.jpg
I can't explain the other differences.

You might try the advice in
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DamagedPrefs.html
but I'm not sure it matches your problem

You might also try applying all the updates to Office up to the recent
11.2.6 It won't directly affect your problem, but it might
'accidentally' restore some bit of data merge manager that went missing

Maybe someone else can hop in here to help?

PS. my web server may appear and disappear at random. My ADSL line
sulks at intervals. If no progress, try again in a few minutes.

PPS. When you do find a fix, please tell us what.

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Peter Jamieson - 25 Aug 2006 11:22 GMT

It seems to be called DMMShow ("Shows or hides the Data Merge Manager")

There's also a DMWShow ("Launch Data Merge Wizard") which doesn't appear to
do anything.

Peter Jamieson

> <snip>
>> ... I tried it ... here's the evidence :)
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>
> PPS. When you do find a fix, please tell us what.

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Elliott Roper - 25 Aug 2006 12:04 GMT

> It seems to be called DMMShow ("Shows or hides the Data Merge Manager")

That's it. I can remove the Data Merge Manager from the Tools menu and
adding DMMShow restores it and it works as before.

Obvious once you know they abbreviated it.

Thanks

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Paul Berkowitz - 25 Aug 2006 16:17 GMT

On 8/25/06 4:04 AM, in article 250820061204588336%nospam@yrl.co.uk, "Elliott
Roper" <nospam@yrl.co.uk> wrote:

>> It seems to be called DMMShow ("Shows or hides the Data Merge Manager")
>
> That's it. I can remove the Data Merge Manager from the Tools menu and
> adding DMMShow restores it and it works as before.
>
> Obvious once you know they abbreviated it.

Data Merge Manager for DMMies? Not. Microsoft-think at work...

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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

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CyberTaz - 25 Aug 2006 13:37 GMT

Interesting discovery - my surgical technique has simply been to replace the
_whole friggin' menu_ when I can't locate one of the well disguised missing
pieces :-)

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Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

> It seems to be called DMMShow ("Shows or hides the Data Merge Manager")
>
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>>
>> PPS. When you do find a fix, please tell us what.

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Daiya Mitchell - 25 Aug 2006 18:03 GMT

> For comparison, this is what my tools menu looks like before and after
> reset.
> http://www.yrl.co.uk/~elliott/cfnatalia.jpg
> I can't explain the other differences.

I can. :) Word 5.1 menus. No Tools | Language either, and I bet she
doesn't have View | Formatting Palette.

Actually, that comparison is really helpful, I'm tempted to borrow those
screenshots and add them to the article. But doesn't it look like an old
version, when you look at them side by side? Look how much stuff got added
in the last several versions.

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/internautte/Picture1.gif
http://www.yrl.co.uk/~elliott/cfnatalia.jpg

Word 2004 has had a rash of complaints about 5.1 Menus being enabled because
the simple keyboard shortcuts control-5 and control-8 turn them on. You can
un-assign this shortcut key through the Tools>Customize dialog, if you want
to prevent this happening. The command you need is "Word5Menus" and it is
listed under the category "Window and Help".

Things that go wrong:
Tools | Language
View | Formatting Palette
Insert | Break | 6 different options
Tools | Data Merge Manager
[still adding to this list as complaints come in]

I think the DamagedPrefs article *would* fix it, as turning on Word 5.1
menus is held in the prefs, if I remember correctly, but that's overkill.

PS. The DMMShow is a useful piece of info. Thanks for that.

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Natalia R. - 25 Aug 2006 21:19 GMT

I am not at my home computer now, and I will definitely try all these
suggestions when I come home and let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

> Thank you. I appreciate the clarity of your advice, and the compliment! So
> ... I tried it ... here's the evidence :)
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
> >
> > I blame the Wicked Witch of Wedmond.

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Peter Jamieson - 25 Aug 2006 11:27 GMT

Try..

Tools|Customize|Customize Toolbars/menus | Commands, select category All
commands, locate DMMShow in the list of commands and drag it to a
toolbar/menu.

I'm not /that/ familiar with Mac so there may be more to it, but that seems
to do the trick here.

As for why it wasn't there before, no idea - I wouldn't expect there to be a
difference between the various editions of Word 2004 but maybe there is.

Peter Jamieson

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> to
> get moving!

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Mac Forum / Applications / Word / August 2006

Data Merge in Word 2004 for Mac