Word/Excel 2010 Merge - Error has occurred: External table is not in the expected format.

Anonymous
2010-07-01T14:18:54+00:00

We are trying to do a mail merge using Word 2010.  If we use Excel files which were originally saved when we used 2007 or if we create new 2010 files we receive the error message: External table is not in the expected format.

If we go back and open the Excel file and "save as" an Excel 97-2003 file, the merge then works. 

Is there something we can do to change this.  It effects all of the computers at our college which were just upgraded to Windows 7 / Office 2010.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-12-07T15:55:18+00:00

Hello,

My name is Ross and I am a Support Engineer for Microsoft Word. I have worked on this issue with a customer and the cause was determined to be an incorrect installation order of multiple versions of Office Products. In this case it was Office 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2007. Microsoft does not support having multiple versions of Office products installed, but if you must, then we recommend installing them oldest version to newest version. Please see this KB article for more information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2121447. In this case, doing a repair of Microsoft Office 2010 after the initial incorrect installation order has resolved the issue. I hope this information helps answer the questions posted on this thread.

Thank you,

Ross

Microsoft Office Word

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Anonymous
2012-03-02T21:52:09+00:00

Hello,

I have an update to this issue. This KB details the registry key that causes the issue and how to fix it. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459087.

Thanks,

Ross

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-15T16:36:46+00:00

    I am having the same problem - interesting thing is, I am using an excel file and a word document that I mail merge together every semester for the same processes, and today is the first time I have ever received an error. Microsoft is ridiculous.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-12-03T15:33:47+00:00

    The Excel spreadsheet was created using Excel 2010 and has the .xlsx extension. Access was never used on the computer. All our computers have Access so I don't know whether not having Access is another problem. I don't know the answer to your question noted in b. about the Jet provider.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-11-26T08:45:51+00:00

    > There must be something that Access runs that Word really needs to make the mail merge process work with Excel

    That's certainly possible, given that Word uses the Access Jet/ACE database engine to get data from Excel.

    Here, I don't remember having any problem on this particular one. Are you using Access quite frequently anyway, or was this the first time you ran it on that particular machine? I also wonder whether people who have created a new Recipients list from within the Word Mailmerge function at some point would also avoid this problem (because that uses Jet to manipulate the data source).

    The other two possibilities that occurred to me when I first read the original question here were...

     a. was the Excel file an Excel file, or did it merely have a .xls or .xlsx type extension? That can cause this problem, but it didn't seem likely given the problem description. (There is a specific sequence of events in Mail Merge that can result in an existing file being overwritten by a recipients list in the wrong format, though right now I cannot quite remember the steps involved.)

     b. could Word be trying to open a .xlsx file with the Jet provider? I can't quite see it, but if there are circumstances in which Word cannot "see" the ACE provider, perhaps it might try to "fall back" to the Jet provider, which AFAIK cannot open .xlsx. Perhaps all "running Access once" does is to make ACE available. In which case people without Access are likely in trouble on this one.

    Peter Jamieson

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