Ok so i've now gone into my word template and done the following:

Word Office button>Word Options>Advanced>General and checked the "Confirm file format conversion on open" box. Clicked ok, re-saved the doc and exited.

I then re-open said template and go to mailings>select recips>use existing list and select the relevant workbook. It then brings up the Confirm Data Source box. I check the "show all" field at the bottom and hit ok. I'm then lead to believe I should be using the "MS Excel Worksheet via DDE" option? However, when I do I don't seem to be able to extract the data from the specific worksheet I require.

Getting there slowly but could perhaps do with a hand on this last but if anyone's got a suggestion?