Check the setting to Ignore other applications in Tools/Options/General. If
it's on, turn it off. That MAY be the culprit.

"uggabugga" wrote in message
...
I have a user with a unique problem that I have not seen before. When
double
clicking an Excel document, Excel opens to a blank Excel window but the
document does not open unless it is opened from within Excel.

The problem started when the user noticed that her Mail Merge was not
working properly. While attempting to use Mail Merge, the user receives
the
following message:

Word cannot re-establish a DDE Connection to MS Excel to complete the
current task

I assume that Word is reporting that error because Excel is not working
properly.

I tried to repair Office once and I completely removed & reinstalled
Office
two times and the problem remains.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.