WD97: Error Message: "Cannot Find Installable ISAM"

ID: Q237284

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Word 97 for Windows, if you perform a mail merge with Microsoft Visual FoxPro Files as the data source, and you select FoxPro Files via ODBC (*.dbf), and you have one or more of the following installed:

Windows NT 4.0 with Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) version 2.1

Windows 98 Second Edition

Windows 95 or Windows 98 with MDAC 2.1

Any other program that updates Odbcjt32.dll to version 4.0

The following error message may appear:

Cannot Find Installable ISAM

CAUSE

The operating systems listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article all install Odbcjt32.dll version 4.0, which does not support installable ISAM (indexed sequential access method).

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, you need to do all of the following:

To ensure that you are using Visual FoxPro ODBC driver (Vfpodbc.dll) version 6.0 or later, download and install Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.1 or later.

NOTE: If you already have installed MDAC 2.1 or later, proceed to the next two steps, "Download and install Wdvfpdsn.exe" and "Attach or re-attach the FoxPro data source in Word".

-and-

Download and install the Wdvfpdsn.exe file from the Microsoft Download Center.

-and-

Attach or re-attach the FoxPro data source in Word.

Ensure That You Are Using Vfpodbc.dll Version 6.0 or Later

Download and install MDAC 2.1 from the following Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/Data/MDAC21info/MDAC21sp2manifest.htm

Or click here:

http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm

When MDAC 2.1 is installed, it does not create the necessary registry entries for Word to use it. To correctly allow Word to use the Visual FoxPro ODBC driver during a mail merge, follow the steps in the next section, "Downloading and Installing the Wdvfpdsn.exe File."

Downloading and Installing the Wdvfpdsn.exe File

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center. Click the file name below to download the file:

Wdvfpdsn.exe

For more information about how to download files from the Microsoft Download Center, please visit the Download Center at the following Web address

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.asp

and then click How to use the Microsoft Download Center.

Attaching or Reattaching the Data Source

In Microsoft Word, open the mail merge main document and attach or reattach the data source by clicking Mail Merge on the Tools menu and then clicking Get Data.

After selecting the Microsoft FoxPro Files in the Open Data Source dialog box, make sure to click the Select method check box. Click Open.

In the Confirm Data Source dialog box, select FoxPro Files - Word via ODBC (*.dbf).

NOTE: You still receive the error message if you click on the old driver, "FoxPro Files via ODBC (*.dbf)". To avoid this, make sure you click on the correct driver with "Word" in the name, for example, FoxPro Files - Word via ODBC (*.dbf).

MORE INFORMATION

ISAM is an indexing mechanism for efficient access to rows of data in a file.

REFERENCES

For additional information about problems relating to the Visual FoxPro ODBC driver, please click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q191708 Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver May Crash Client Application

Q191685 Vfp6int.exe VFP 6.0 ODBC Driver FoxPro.int Resource File

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbdta
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb