How to remove mail merge data source from Word document

The following steps show how to remove the link between a Word document and a mail merge data source.

When you open a Word document that has mail merge data source you see a message that reads:

Opening this document will run the following SQL command: 
...

These steps work in both Word 2013 and Word 2016.

Word2016-DisconnectMailMergeSource1

  1. With the Word document open, open the ‘Mailings’ tab
  2. Click on the ‘Start Mail Merge’ button
  3. Then click on ‘Normal Word Document’
  4. Word2016-DisconnectMailMergeSource2
  5. Close the save the document – the link to the data source has now been removed.

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14 comments on “How to remove mail merge data source from Word document

  1. THANK YOU! Really helped me a looot as I was having my work no saved and reestarted like 4 times and was over frustration! Thank you so so much! It has worked!

  2. Last year I created a mail merge document top mimic an ornate WORD document which I was asked to complete to send as an annual return. I set up a 2-column Excel sheet to hold the data (easy to scan down and edit) and wrote a small VBA macro to copy this col A, B data to rows 1 and 2. I then used this as the data source for my mailmerge. One year down theline, I have edited the EXCEL with new names etc but the &*%! insists on holding on to the 2020 data. I have moved the old data file out of the direectory.. I have nulled the link when opening the mail merge. I have re-ru the Mail Merge wizard but it makes no difference. Evrey time I try preview, I see “Annual Return 2020” again. Any ideas?

  3. I just tried this, and I’m still getting the &*%! prompt. I need to be able to share the finished merge across the company (its a bunch of labels for samples) and that means separating it from the source while keeping the data in it.

    Why did they make this so hard?

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