Let me explain the sequence of my work.
I open a Word template which is automatically entitled "Document1." I save it as "ToBeMerged."
I edit the Recipient List which is tied into an XL file, and then I "Finish and Merge," using "Edit Individual Documents" & "Merge All Records." A multi-page file entitled "Letters1" is created, and I save it as "MergedDoc." So far, this is a no-brainer, and everything works perfectly.
But then the problem occurs.
If I close "MergedDoc" before I close "ToBeMerged," Word crashes every time.
If I close "ToBeMerged" before I close "MergedDoc," there is never a problem.


Does anyone know why Word crashes if I close the merged document first?
Thanks very much for your help!
Reid Taylor

Have you tried repairing the Office installation (via Windows Control Panel > Programs > Programs & Features > Microsoft Office (version) > Change > Repair)?

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks very much for replying to my inquiry. I appreciate your expertise and availability!
Yes, I have repaired Microsoft Office, which does not resolve the problem.

In that case, your mailmerge main document may have acquired some of corruption. Corrupt documents can often be 'repaired' by inserting a new, empty, paragraph at the very end, copying everything except that new paragraph to a new document based on the same template (headers & footers may need to be copied separately), closing the old document and saving the new one over it. With a mailmerge main document, you'd also need to re-connect to the data source and re-apply any filtering.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

This is a long-standing problem, more than a year. I've created many mailmerge documents, including the barest single-line test documents, and all have suffered the same problem.
Just to put this in perspective, if I close the to-be-merged document before the merged document, there's no problem, and I have gotten pretty good at remembering to do this. I'm simply curious about what might be causing the crash. Have you ever heard of such a problem before?
I don't know if it's relevant or not, but I use Dragon Naturally Speaking (Medical Practice Edition) for dictation, for which there is an add-in in Word. I do not use any other Word add-ins.
Thanks again for your help on this.
Reid

Try starting Word in Safe mode (i.e. hold down the Ctrl key while starting Word) and see if that cures the problem. If so, a defective 3rd-party adding is the most likely cause. In that case, re-start Word, disable all addins, the go through the process of re-starting & re-enabling addins one at a time until you find the culprit. Uninstall that addin or replace it with an updated version.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I discovered the problem by luck. In a completely different discussion you happened to mention that merge documents should not be templates! I changed my document to a plain Word file, and the problem was solved.
I wish I knew half as much as you do about Word! Many thanks.
Reid

Glad you got it sorted.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]