Excel Mail Merge run time error 4198

Question

There was a previous question on stackoverflow:
"Is it possible to start MAIL MERGE from excel macro (by clicking a button on sheet) I have excel sheet with data and want to export it to new word doc." This was answered Sep 29 '09 at 12:39 by dendarii 772.

We had this need too because we wanted to simplify life for volunteers with limited computer skills.

Unfortunately dendarii's code, modified with a suitable path, exits with run time error 4198 at the .OpenDataSource statement.

Cindy Meister writing on Microsoft Office for Developer's Form> ..>Word 2010 VBA suggested 4198 errors could be due to synchronicity problems. I gave it go with no success.

Andrew Poulson writing on Mr Excel encourages a contributor Snecz to compare his VBA mail merge .OpenDataSource statement against a Word macro recording. What do contributors think? My .OpenDataSource line seems standard. My Excel datasource file has a line of headers followed by two lines of data elements.

We have Office 2010.

I would be very grateful for any suggestions as to how to fix 4198 and if anyone knows of general diagnostic procedures. We are two people working for a charitable organisation. Any help welcome!

 Sub RunMerge()  
     
    Dim wd As Object   
    Dim wdocSource As Object  
       
    Dim strWorkbookName As String  
     
    On Error Resume Next   
    Set wd = GetObject(, "Word.Application")   
    If wd Is Nothing Then   
    Set wd = CreateObject("Word.Application")   
    End If   
    On Error GoTo 0   
       
    Set wdocSource = wd.Documents.Open("C:\Users\george\Desktop\VBA Project\Mergeletter.docx")   
       
    strWorkbookName = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\" & ThisWorkbook.Name   
        
    wdocSource.MailMerge.MainDocumentType = wdFormLetters   
       
    wdocSource.MailMerge.OpenDataSource _   
    Name:=strWorkbookName, _   
    AddToRecentFiles:=False, _   
    Revert:=False, _   
    Format:=wdOpenFormatAuto, _      
    Connection:="Data Source=" & strWorkbookName & ";Mode=Read", _  
    SQLStatement:="SELECT * FROM `Sheet1$`"    

    With wdocSource.MailMerge

    .Destination=wdSendToNewDocument

    .SuppressBlankLines = True  
    With .DataSource  
    .FirstRecord = wdDefaultFirstRecord  
    .LastRecord = wdDefaultLastRecord  
    End With  
    .Execute Pause:=False  
    End With  
        
    wd.Visible = True  
    wdocSource.Close SaveChanges:=False     
       
    Set wdocSource = Nothing  
    Set wd = Nothing     

    End Sub  

Answer 1

Do you have a reference set to the Word object library? If not, then the macro will fail because you are using specific items found in that library ( like wdOpenFormatAuto).

To add a reference to the library, in the excel VBA editor click on Tools>References and scroll down until you find "Micrsoft Word Object Library", click the box to the left to 'check it' and click 'OK'. There will be a version number associated with it... probably 14.0 since you are running Office 2010.

Add that reference and that should fix your problem.

If you already have that set, let us know.

Answer 2

How about putting an artificial delay in just before the call to OpenDataSource to give the Open method a chance to catch up? This is pretty ugly and may need to be cleaned up a bit to match VBA syntax, but here goes:

For nI As Integer = 0 To 2500
  DoEvents()
Next

You could also test dates and let a given amount of time pass (i.e. 2 seconds) before carrying on (this is more VB.Net code than anything):

Dim dtDate As Date = Date.Now

Do While Date.Now.Subtract(dtDate).TotalSeconds < 2
  DoEvents()
Loop