Microsoft KB Archive/279363

= PUB2002: &quot;This Operation Cannot Be Completed&quot; Error Message When You Connect to Data Source in Mail Merge =

Article ID: 279363

Article Last Modified on 11/5/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Publisher 2002 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q279363





SYMPTOMS
If you attempt to connect to a data source during a mail merge, and that data source exists on a Web server, you receive the following error message:

The operation cannot be completed because of dialog or data base engine failures. Please try again later.



CAUSE
The mail merge database engine cannot connect to a data source that resides on a Web server.

This is a known limitation of the current Jet Database engine to make a connection to the data source via HTTP call to the file.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, copy the data source file to a local disk drive, if the Web server permissions allow it. To do this, follow these steps:
 * 1) Locate the data source on the Web server.
 * 2) Click the file name to select the data source.
 * 3) On the Edit menu, click Copy.
 * 4) Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.
 * 5) In Windows Explorer, locate a folder where you want to keep the data source, and then click the folder to select it.
 * 6) On the Edit menu, click Paste.
 * 7) Run the mail merge again from Publisher 2002, and open the data source that you copied from the Web server to your local disk drive.

The ability to copy the data source depends on the permission set to that directory.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Additional query words: PUB2002 mailmerge mailmerging datasource

Keywords: kbbug KB279363

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