Symptoms
When you try to save changes in a mail merge document, Microsoft Word may stop responding (hang). Additionally, you may receive the following error message:
Microsoft Word has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
Cause
This behavior can occur if the following conditions are true:
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In Microsoft Office Word 2003 and in earlier versions of Word, no recently used documents are listed in the New Document task pane .
In Microsoft Office Word 2007, no recently used documents are listed in the Recent Documents task pane. -
You create a Mail Merge document.
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You save that document to a Web folder location.
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You change the document and then try to save it.
Note This behavior can also occur when you make changes to the document, exit Word, and then click Yes when you are prompted to save your changes.
Workaround
To work around this issue, do not click Save to save the changes to the document. Instead, to save the changes, follow these steps.
Note If you try to exit Word or to close the document, and if you are prompted to save your changes, click Cancel to return to Word.
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In Word 2003 and in earlier versions of Word, click Save As on the File menu.
In Word 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Save As. -
In the Save in list, click the Web folder that you want.
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In the File name box, type a new file name for the mail merge document. For example, type MailMerge 1.doc, and then click Save.
Status
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.
