Troubleshooting ODBC Error Could not Open Macro Storage Error (Run-time error 5981) Error Message - "ADO could not find the specified provider" Exceptionally Low Address Match Error - "Not a Valid Name" Address Details when printed are all in quotes " " How do you use a label printer with BLINK? How do you use a MS Access query as the data source in a mail merge? Out of Stack Space error message Where do I find out information about my nearest Australia Post Business Centre or the PreSort Letters Service? Search this site         ODBC Error When running the Mail Merge in Microsoft® Word, the error message "ODBC Error: Data source name not found and no default driver specified". This occurs because Microsoft® Word is unable to start Microsoft® Access. To fix it do the following: 1. Double click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop. 2. Double click on the "Control Panel" icon. 3. Double click on the "ODBC Data Sources" icon. This will open up the ODBC Data Source Administrator Window 4. To add the entry, ensure you are in the "User DSN" tab and Click on the "Add" button . 5. Select the "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)" entry and click on the "Finish" button. 6. In the "Data Source Name Field", enter "MS Access 97 Database", and then click on the "OK" button. 7. The entry should now have been added. Click on the "OK" button to close the ODBC Data Source Administrator Window.     Could Not Open Macro Storage Error (Run-time error 5981) When running BLINK you can get the error message "Could not open macro storage". This is caused by either not having Service Pack 1 installed with Microsoft® Office, or because the Visual Basic and Microsoft® Word installation has become corrupted. To fix it you will need to either install Service Pack 1, if it has not been installed before, or reinstall Microsoft® Word.     Error Message - "ADO could not find the specified provider" This message may appear if the computer has a non-typical installation of MS Office 2000. To resolve this issue run d:\Microsoft OS Enhancements\MDAC 2.1 (SP2) Redistributable\mdac_typ.exe from the BLINK CD ROM (where d:\ is the drive letter of the CD ROM drive). If this is not successful then the user may need to run d:\Microsoft OS Enhancements\MDAC 2.1 (SP2) Redistributable\Dcom98.exe, restart the computer and rerun d:\Microsoft OS Enhancements\MDAC 2.1 (SP2) Redistributable\mdac_typ.exe from the BLINK CD ROM.     Exceptionally Low Address Match When matching with an Access Datafile as input, a number of errors could be encountered if the postcode field is defined in Access as a type "Double". To check this, open up the datafile in Access, click on "Design", and select the Postcode field. If it is "Double", change it to "Long Integer". In this process warning messages will be displayed. Click "OK" to the warning messages and Access should convert the field without any problems. Other possible reasons for a low address matching rate include: New suburbs not yet included in the Postal Address File (PAF) House names or contact details in address line 1 Rural property names used rather than RSD numbers Building names used - these are not in the PAF Abbreviations such as Rd., St. rather than Rd, St - i.e. do not use a period (.) as part of the abbreviation Unusual abbreviations You are using the demonstration version of BLINK which has a significantly reduced version of the PAF, and hence will match fewer addresses than the full PAF Check your addresses - are they correct?     Error - "Not a Valid Name" When attempting to run an ASCII text delimited file through the BLINK Data Pre-processor the error message - "not a valid name" appears. BLINK field names can be up to 64 characters long, can include any combination of letters, numbers, spaces and special characters except a period (.), an exclamation point (!), an accent grave (à), and square brackets([ ]). Field names cannot begin with leading spaces and cannot include control characters (ASCII values 0 through 31). Some proprietary databases will allow field names which are not valid for BLINK and so will not import into BLINK's data pre-processor. The solution is either not to export these fields from the database, or if that is not possible then the name in the text file should be changed. To do this, open the exported text file in Notepad and change the field names in the first line. Then start BLINK's data pre-processor and use the amended text file as the input. Note, this does not affect the field names in the original database.       Address Details when printed are all in quotes " " This problem may occur when a comma delimited text file is exported from a database (e.g. ACT!). The export process places quotes "around" all the fields and these will appear in the printed addresses. (e.g. "John" "Smith", "1 George St" etc). To avoid this simply export the database as a Tab delimited database, or specify the quotes " " as the text qualifiers and as text/characters to be removed.       How do I use a label printer with BLINK BLINK can be used with a label printer such as the Seiko Instruments Smart Label Printer Pro. Simply create and save a new format that formats the barcode appropriately and then cut and paste the address details from BLINK's data entry that have been placed in Word into the Label Printer software programme. With some versions of the software the label format must be applied before the address is pasted into the label. With other versions the address is pasted first and the format applied after. Please contact us for more details.     How do you use a MS Access query as the data source in a mail merge? If the user wishes to use a Query as the data source, the Query will need to be converted to a table. This can be easily done in the design view of the query, as follows: Highlight the relevant query in the database and click on the "Design" button. In the menu at the top of the screen select the Query -> Make-Table Query option. Type in a name for the new table and select whether the new table is to placed in the current or a new database. Then click on OK. Run the query by clicking on the Run icon or selecting the Query -> Run menu option. If asked whether the user wants the new table to be created, click on Yes. The new table is now created and can be used as the input for BLINK’s Data Pre-processor.     Out of Stack Space error message In some circumstances, towards the end of the mail merge process, the process may terminate abnormally with an error message that mentions being "out of stack space" or "value out of range". To overcome this issue, after the labels or envelopes have been set up, it is best to click on "Close" in the Mail Merge Helper dialogue box rather than clicking on the "Merge" button, and then click on the "Merge to New Document" or "Merge to Printer" icon buttons in the Mail Merge toolbar at the top of the screen.     Where do I find out information about my nearest Australia Post Business Centre or the PreSort Letters Service? For information on the location of your nearest Australia Post Business Centre for lodging bulk mail, or for any questions about postage discounts please ring BusinessPost on 13 11 18. This is also the best way to find out about the mechanics and details of the PreSort Letters Service. Click here for a summary of the service. Frequently Asked Questions Technical Information For technical support please email us at support@blink.com.au Search This Web Site For: Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase Sound-alike matching