ACC2000: Header Record Delimiters Dialog Box Appears During Mail Merge Using an MDE Database

When you try to use an MDE file as the data source of a mail merge in Microsoft Word, you see a dialog box telling you that the file is locked for editing by another user. If you click either Read Only or Notify, you then see a dialog box with the following message: The Preview box contains only unintelligible characters. If you click OK, Microsoft Word creates a merge document that has only a single merge field whose name also consists of unintelligible characters. If you click Cancel, you receive the following error message:

This behavior occurs when you try to start a mail merge from Word by clicking Mail Merge on the Tools menu, as well as when you initiate the mail merge from Microsoft Access by clicking Merge It with MS Word.

This behavior does not occur with MDB files and can be avoided by renaming MDE files so that they have the .mdb file name extension.

NOTE: You can modify the design of forms, reports, or modules only by modifying a form, report, or module in the original database and saving it as an MDE file again; therefore, it is important to keep a copy of the original database.

If the MDE file is located in the same folder as the MDB file, you must rename the MDE file so that its name is different from that of the original MDB file. For example, if your file is named Mergedata.mde, you may want to rename it Mergedata2.mdb. By giving the new file a different name from that of the original file, you also reduce the possibility of accidentally overwriting the original MDB file with the new MDB file.

By changing the file name extension of a database from MDE to MDB, you do not affect the special characteristics of an MDE file. Users of the database are still prevented from doing the following:

• Creating, viewing, or modifying forms, reports, or modules in Design view.
• Adding, deleting, or changing references to object libraries or databases.
• Changing code using the properties or methods of the Microsoft Access or Visual Basic for Applications Object models; an MDE file contains no source code.
• Changing the Visual Basic for Applications project name in your database by using the Options dialog box.
• Importing or exporting forms, reports, or modules.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Access 2000.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Start Microsoft Access 2000 and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.
2. On the Tools menu, point to Database Utilities, and then click Make MDE File.
3. In the Save MDE As dialog box, type Northwind.mde in the File Name box, and then click Save.
4. Close the database.
5. On the File menu, click Open Database.
6. In the Files of Type box, click MDE Files (*.MDE).
7. Browse to select Northwind.mde and click Open.
8. On the Tools menu, point to Office Links, and then click Merge It with MS Word.
9. In the Microsoft Word Mail Merge Wizard, click Create a new document and then link data to it, and then click OK.

For more information about MDE files, click Microsoft Access Help on the Help menu, type work with mde files in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.