Mailing Series Part 4: Mail Merge is hanging

Does your mail merge seem to be hanging where the world just continues to spin and letters are never generated from the Raiser's Edge? There is a common cause for this issue that we can easily check for!

After you have clicked to generate and finish your mail merge, you will see a screen like the one pictured below:

If this screen seems to be stuck,  press Alt + Tab on your keyboard. Continue to press tab to rotate through the open windows until you land on the Word Icon. Here, you may see an error message about a SQL prompt error message:

"Opening this Document will run the following command: SELECT *FROM 'MAIL DATA' Data from your database will be placed in this document. Do you wish to continue?"

 

Click Yes for each time this message appears. This pop-up is a security warning that is essentially asking the user if it is okay for the Raiser's Edge and Microsoft Word to speak to one another and in turn, generate your letters. This error is also documented on our KnowledgeBase in article 45255.

Microsoft does have a fix published that requires changes to the Registry; however, after these changes, the prompt will no longer appear. If you choose not to make these changes to the registry, pressing Alt + Tab will allow for you to click through the pop-ups. Happy mailing!