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.

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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
    2012-04-05T21:29:10+00:00

    I can confirm that this workaround worked for me also.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-04-02T13:58:06+00:00

    I hate to show how ill informed I am on the operation of mail merge, but after I changed my settings in the file-advanced-general to check data sources I had a check box come up that asked me to show all data sources when I was in the mail merge select data sources of my mail merge process.  When I selected the box all was well and I could choose excel.

    Hello HomerGentry,

    I hope you have seen the messages that suggest using the DDE connection method as a workaround, which may be a viable solution in some cases.

    It's difficult to avoid a "techie" assessment of the situation.

    Following your post I have tried several installations of Office 2010, with and without Access, on Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit. On the 64-bit platform, I've tried both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office.

    Unfortunately from the point of view of trying to identify the problem,

    a. I have been unable to replicate the problem so far - i.e., I create a simple test .xlsx, select it as the data source for a merge, and everything works fine.

    b. my version is the Pro version which includes Access, so even when I have unchecked Access during the installation, it may not have the same overall effect as installing the Standard version.

    c. Although I am fairly sure I could simulate the problem by removing some of the relevant Windows registry entries, I don't think such a simulation would actually get anywhere.

    d. It is possible that this situation only arises if your win7/Office2010 system has been created from an upgrade (e.g. Win XP or Vista->Win7 and/or Office 2003/2007->2010). If I had the time and energy to try even one version of those upgrade paths, I suppose I might find a combination that causes the problem. But I don't. And it is only my subjective judgment, but I can't actually think of any reason why an upgrade from a /working/ version of Access/Jet/ACE would create a non-working version.

    So my only suggestion right now is as follows.

    Can you please try creating a new mail merge data source from within Word, i.e. by choosing Select Recipients->Type New List, then creating a new list (it can be short!) and going through a merge based on that list. The resulting list is in fact an old-style Access .mdb ("Jet") database. If you can use that successfully as a data source for a Word merge,

    a. it suggests that the necessary "Jet" components are installed.

    b. it is worth trying connecting to your Excel data source again. If that then fails, my best guess is that the Word 2007/2010 "ACE" equivalents of the older "Jet" components are missing.

    If you have a copy of Office 2010 that is in warranty, I strongly advise that you contact Microsoft support on this issue as well.

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