Mailmerge error when trying to include a picture in the merge document

Question

Mailmerge error when trying to include a picture in the merge document

Anonymous

I have a mailmerge document were I want to insert a variable image that has to be stored on my desktop. I followed the instructions from this post: https://answers.

I got this to work on multiple computers (Mac), but now after a couple of weeks I get an error when I merge the documents on of these computers. The error says that the attached picture cannot be shown because it is possibly moved, has another name or is deleted, and when I refresh using cmd+A and then fn+F9, the image can be seen in the document, but is completely white.

Since the mailmerge document is working fine on my other pc I think the problem is within the setting of word or my Mac. Before, when I started my mailmerge, I was always asked to grant acces to the image that I wanted to merge into the Word document, and after giving this, the image was loaded in the document without any problems. Now, the mailmerge document does not ask me to grant access when I insert a new picture, but instead I get the reference error at the location where the picture should be.. On my other computer I still have to give this permission, and the mailmerge works fine.

So my guess is that I accidentally changed some settings within Microsoft Word or the mac that lets me skip this step, not giving access to the image and causing this error. The only thing is that I do not know which setting I changed, and how I could switch this setting back (or know the real reason for this error). I checked all my mac settings and Word settings by comparing them with the computer that still has a working version of the mailmerge document, but I can't find any differences.. Also I tried to reupload an older version of the documents on my computer, but this also doesn't work..Maybe one of you can help me out on this error or knows what causes this behavior, cause it's driving me crazy now and I don't know where to look for this error anymore.

Thanks in advance!

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4 additional answers

Answer 1

Hi Petey,

Glad to here that my suggestion can work on your end. When we right-click the file and get info with it, we will see the format of the path.

As there is no official article to tell the correct file path on mac, as a workaround, you can use /Users/<username>/Desktop/filename.

Sometime maybe use backwards slashes can work but we suggest you use the format i mentioned above. We can't tell from when it can't be used or maybe some other reason caused this situation. But as you can use Word and insert picture normally, we suggest you can use forward slashes "/" to finish your work.

Best Regards,

Ivy

Answer 2

Hi Petey,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused by this. We are so grateful for your information above. After we test on our end, we can work with our issue. When we input a wrong file path of picture, the field can’t show picture and we have the same error that you mentioned.

But when we input a right path, it will show the Grant Access window then we can see the picture normally. So we assume that you didn’t have a right path of your .jpg file. We suggest you try to change the correct path and see the result.

If still not this case, please provide related information for us:

Your Excel version. Excel->About Excel. Please provide screenshot to us.
Your macOS version. Find out which macOS your Mac is using.
Does this issue happen to all mergemails or specific one?

Regards,

Ivy

Answer 3

Anonymous

Hi Petey,

Have you checked my reply? You're welcome to post back if you still need assistance.

Regards,

Ivy

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Answer 4

Yes, but the thing is it worked before and now it stopped working on this pc. I tried it with different pictures but and I checked the paths to be a 100% sure that this is not the case. The path of the image looks like this:

/Users/<username>/Desktop/Schermafbeelding 2019-06-19 om 11.05.54.png

which I change for the mailmerge to:

\Users\<username>\Desktop\Schermafbeelding 2019-06-19 om 11.05.54.png

and this is how my mergefield looks:

{INCLUDEPICTURE {IF TRUE "{MERGEFIELD Afbeelding }"} \d}

After I merged the document the image is the ONLY field which I can still see after I merged the document and display the field codes (FN+ALT+F9) and looks like this after the merge:

{INCLUDEPICTURE \Users\<username>\Desktop\Schermafbeelding 2019-06-19 om 11.05.54.png \d}

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my grant access settings, because that's the only thing that has changed, and is the only thing that is different with my other pc. Do you know anything about security settings/grant access settings that are used by microsofts mailmerge funcionality and where I could find those settings?

I can send you a copy of my documents if that would help you, only thing is that the error only happens on this computer and not on my other computers..

Edit: When I first manually drag and drop the image to any word document, then close the word document without saving and then open the mailmerge document, the image uploads fine and does not give any errors. Again, I think it has something to do with the grant access settings of Word, but I don't know how I can change those settings..

Answer 5

The error says that the attached picture cannot be shown because it is possibly moved, has another name or is deleted, and when I refresh using cmd+A and then fn+F9, the image can be seen in the document, but is completely white.

The 'completely white' image is simply a placeholder where the image might have gone. The rest of your description suggests the path to the images on the two computers is not the same.

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Mailmerge error when trying to include a picture in the merge document

4 additional answers