Works: Previous Word Processor Mail Merge Is Not Recognized

In Microsoft Works 2000 or Microsoft Works 6, if you open a word processor document created in an earlier version of Works that contains mail or print merge fields, the merge fields are converted to text, and the contents of the merge fields are no longer recognized or available in the document. Only the name of each merged field, such as "Name," "Address," or "Zip Code," remains.

This problem occurs because the merge field formats used in Works 4.5a and earlier versions of the Works word processor are incompatible with the merge field format in the versions of the programs that are listed above.

To resolve this issue, download the Microsoft Works Mail Merge patch. To do so, visit the following Microsoft Web site: This patch may not completely resolve your issue becuase of differences in the fieldname requirements between older & newer versions. If this occurs, you may still work around this issue by replacing the merge fields in the document with merge fields from the later version of Works that you are using from the above list.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the latest version of Works and create a new blank database with only one field.
   
   If at any time in the following steps you are prompted to save this newly created database (with only one field), click No.
2. After this database is open, click the File menu, click Open, and then locate and open the older version database that was originally used for the mail merge.
3. Save this database by using a new file name or in a new location, and then close it.
4. In Works Word Processor, open a mail or print merge document that was created in an earlier version of Works.
5. In the document, highlight to select the merge field that you want to replace, right-click the field, and then click Cut.
6. On the Insert menu, click Database Field.
7. Select the new database (that you saved with a new name) that contains the data that you want to link to this document.
8. Under Fields, click the field that you want to use in place of the field that you cut in step 3, and then click Insert.
9. Repeat steps 3 through 6 to replace all the old merge fields with Works merge fields.
10. Click View Results to verify that the fields are properly merged.
11. Close the Insert Fields dialog box.
12. Click the File menu, and then click Save.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.