Thanks for the reply, but, with all due respect, your answer has nothing to do with my problem.

I have a mail merge Word 2007 document that I use with the same Excel workbook. I have been using it for 10+ year. I get the prompt asking if I want to use the same SQL query. I always answer "yes".

The issue is with the mail merge task pane which is not there when I open the doc, and then magically appears on its own. (Please re-read the original post.)

Why does it do this? How can I stop it?