Problems merging letters from RE 7.96 to Windows 10.

Jane Corbett

We hav recently been having problems when merging our Donor Acknowledgement letter. Either, the merge hangs and we get an error message saying that the "other application is busy", or Word simply crashes. Our IT team haven't been able to figure out yet what's happening, and they wonder if anyone is aware of any issues. For example, has there been a recent upgrade in RE that is causing problems with Word 10. 

Ryan Hyde

So, Word 10 isn't a thing. Windows 10 is, but Windows 10 can run any given version of Microsoft Office. First, see which version of Office you're running by opening Word and going to File > Help. Somewhere on there you should see something like "Microsoft Office Professional 2016" or maybe 2013 or 2010 (we use 2010 still). 


Also, I'm assuming you're self hosted, yes? If not, then the fact that you're on Windows 10 shouldn't have any impact on your workflow, so I want to be sure.


All that said, I'm not sure exactly what could be causing the problem, but with the right info here, someone may be able to help. You may also just want to go to Support and open a ticket with them directly. This could be a known issue that they can guide you through pretty easily.

Jane Corbett

My apologies. I guess I was using a short form. When I said Word 10 of course I meant Word 2010. We also run Windows 10, but that is not the issue. And Yes, we are self-hosted.

Ryan Hyde

As a temporary workaround, are you able to do Word merges using a spreadsheet? You could use the Mail module to export your .csv file, and then do al of the merging externally from RE. That's not ideal, but at the moment that's the only advice I can give.

John Heizer

Jane Corbett:

We hav recently been having problems when merging our Donor Acknowledgement letter. Either, the merge hangs and we get an error message saying that the "other application is busy", or Word simply crashes. Our IT team haven't been able to figure out yet what's happening, and they wonder if anyone is aware of any issues. For example, has there been a recent upgrade in RE that is causing problems with Word 10. 

This is a common problem.  Word is attempting the merge in the background, but is waiting for permission to access the SQL data for the merge.  Unfortunately the alert window doesn't pop up to the front.

https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/44797


Workaround
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/825765/you-receive-the-opening-this-will-run-the-following-sql-command-messag

Marie Stark

When the merge hangs, you can also see if there is a message box in the background somewhere. Somtimes the message box is hiding behind another scrren.

 

Jane Corbett

Where we are experiencing the issues is in merging our Donor Acknowledgement Letters. What you suggest is indeed the work around we are using. It's quite nuisancy and complicated because we need to use the Batch output query to pull data into an excel spreadsheet, and select lines from the spreadsheet to merge into each of our various acknowledgement letters. 


Our IT team is working on it, and they are wondering if anyone else has had any issues, or if anyone is aware of a recent RE upgrade that might cause problems with Word 2010

Jane Corbett

Hi John

Thanks for this.  I think we may be experiencing something in addition to what you describe. When we bring the alert window forward and click on either Yes or No ( we sometimes have to click many times) eventually either Word or RE crashes. That said, I appreciate the response and the links, and I'll send them to our IT team.

Norma Gomez

Jane Corbett:

Hi John

Thanks for this.  I think we may be experiencing something in addition to what you describe. When we bring the alert window forward and click on either Yes or No ( we sometimes have to click many times) eventually either Word or RE crashes. That said, I appreciate the response and the links, and I'll send them to our IT team.

Hi Jane,

Were you able to determine why Word or RE crashes? We are running into a similar issue.

-Norma

Jane Corbett

Hi

 

Actually we never really solved it. It still
happens from time to time. We also periodically have to switch back
and forth between .xslx and .csv when we are exporting. We are also
having lots of issues recently, where RE seems to time out on us.
Sometimes after only a few moments of inactivity, like while you
are trying to answer a donor's question on the phone, and you have
to keep exiting out of RE and loggin back in.

 

BB support never really has been able to
provide an answer or a solution.

 

Jane

 

Jane
Corbett, MBA, CFRE

Director
of Development

Pronouns:
she/her

LOFT
Community Services  

15
Toronto Street, 9th floor

Toronto
ON, M5C 2E3

 

Please
note our phone extensions have changed:

T:
416-979-1994 ext. #2027

F:
416-979-3028

www.loftcs.org             

 

A
Dignified Life for Everyone

 

 

 

 

 

Michele Thompson 2

Jane Corbett:

We hav recently been having problems when merging our Donor Acknowledgement letter. Either, the merge hangs and we get an error message saying that the "other application is busy", or Word simply crashes. Our IT team haven't been able to figure out yet what's happening, and they wonder if anyone is aware of any issues. For example, has there been a recent upgrade in RE that is causing problems with Word 10. 

Just saw this - I have the same issue. After I get the box that asks if you want to acknowledge that the letters are sent, I wait a bit then I have to do a control > alt > delete and brig up the task manager, click on Microsoft Word and hit Switch To, This actually works but it then brings up something that says "Opening this document will run the following SQL command:  and I have to hit yes (I actually have to hit it 25 times - not sure why). Then MS word opens with the letters. Hope this helps!

Marie Stark

There is a setting in the registry that needs to be added to fix the problem of getting the prompts over and over. John has a link to the workaround in his post.

Alan French

Michele Thompson:

I actually have to hit it 25 times - not sure why

It's because you have 25 different conditions in your conditional mailmerge - we have the same problem but with 90+ letters. Our IT department won't allow us to change the registry settings that Marie mentioned for security reasons

Lee Newcomb

Thanks to John for his post.  I had originally found out about this from support or release notes (memory lost).  Nice that Alt-Tab & left-arrow works for this when I hear the bell prompt.

Just a performance note if you switch to MSOffice 365:  since NSKS shifted to this web MSOffice, each of our TYLtrs (9 at moment) SQL/Word merge prompts takes 3 to 5 seconds now that web communication is needed instead of the previous ~instantaneous prompts.  There are times I want to disconnect from the web to process acknowledgements...but then other active work would stop.  I guess the benefits are better than the problems

Aimee Snyder

I was reading this response and was surprised to read this:


'We are also having lots of issues recently, where RE seems to time out on us. Sometimes after only a few moments of inactivity, like while you are trying to answer a donor's question on the phone, and you have to keep exiting out of RE and loggin back in.' because we have been having THE SAME, EXACT ISSUE!. I chatted with BlackBaud about this on Friday 6/8. They 'reset' my credentials, but unfortunately, that did nothing to improve my situation. Our company's IT says this is a BB issue, and BB was unable to help.  Right now I am trying to keep track of when it 'dissappears'/ crashes, so at least I will have some data.

Aimee

Jane Corbett:

Hi

 

Actually we never really solved it. It still happens from time to time. We also periodically have to switch back and forth between .xslx and .csv when we are exporting. We are also having lots of issues recently, where RE seems to time out on us. Sometimes after only a few moments of inactivity, like while you are trying to answer a donor's question on the phone, and you have to keep exiting out of RE and loggin back in.

 

BB support never really has been able to provide an answer or a solution.

 

Jane

 

Jane Corbett, MBA, CFRE

Director of Development

Pronouns: she/her

LOFT Community Services  

 

15 Toronto Street, 9th floor

Toronto ON, M5C 2E3

 

Please note our phone extensions have changed:

T: 416-979-1994 ext. #2027

F: 416-979-3028

www.loftcs.org             

 

A Dignified Life for Everyone