How do I dynamically update data in a Word Document from a SQL database table when the Word document opens?



I am working with a Disaster Recovery Plan that is 25 pages long. The company has 5 sites and each department at each site has a copy of the DRP, but with their department personnel in the plan. Page 3 has a list of the Recovery Team (unique to each department at each site), page 8 has a Call List (again unique to each department at each site), and page 4 thru 7 describes the responsibilities of each Recovery Team member, with the assigned persons name in the section title, for example:

Recovery Team Leader - Bob Smith

The company has a employee table in a SQL Server 2008 database.

What they want is to put all of these documents in a SharePoint 2007 document library and have them dynamically update with the latest personnel data from that Employee table when a DRP document is opened. That way as staff change positions, staff join or leave the company, or as a DRP team in a specific department at a site shrinks or grows, the Word document will automatically pull the correct data from the database. Thus saving them from retyping these documents constantly.

My questions are:

1. Is this even possible?
2. If 'Yes', how do you do it?

I've tried mail merge and linking to an Excel spreadsheet and nothing has worked properly. Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

R. Schmidt
.Net/SharePoint Developer
Tulsa, Ok

Hi R Schmidt,

You could configure the document as a mailmerge main document, then use mailmerge to produce documents personalised for each site.

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