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I have a word mail merge for letters using an excel file as the data source. My problem is that I am not able to have both files open at the same time for editing (i.e. the excel source data and the word mail merge file)

When I open excel first, then try to open word, i get an error message that the file is already open in another application and word can't use it! When I open word first and then try to open it in excel, excel opens it in read-only mode

I would think this is normal, but I've seen many video tutorials on mail merge and it shows both apps

Does anyone know why this is and how to fix it?

EDIT:
I am running Office 2016 on Windows 10 Pro

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  • Can you post a URL to a sample video that shows what you're trying to do that works for them?
    – Kinnectus
    Feb 4, 2016 at 14:40
  • I don't remember now where I saw them, although I think one was on Lynda.com - However, are you hinting that it is not possible? In short, all I want is to be able open simultaneously 2 documents: 1. my excel file in excel (for editing) 2. Word mail merge document which is using that excel file as it's data source.
    – DaveyD
    Feb 4, 2016 at 23:10
  • No, not at all :) What I'm thinking is that Word may need to lock the Excel file because it counts the rows/caches some of the data (?) it's being asked to process and if you edit the file then it's got nothing to compare data to in the event it needs to verify the cached data?
    – Kinnectus
    Feb 5, 2016 at 5:48
  • Normally it is OK to open the Excel file first, then open the Word file that connects to it. If you are actually editing the Excel document (e.g. you have modified a cell value and have not moved the insertion point out of the cell,) then Word may not connect and may time out. Opening the Word file first usually does cause problems. But, which version of Office, are you using a .xlsx or what? and have you connected in the usual way (OLE DB, though you may not know it)?
    – user181946
    Feb 5, 2016 at 15:40
  • @BigChris That is what it seems like - I just thought I would be able to edit the excel doc during the mail merge, but it seems like not.
    – DaveyD
    Feb 5, 2016 at 18:53

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