Hello all,
I was hoping someone (or multiple someone’s) could get me pointed in the right direction or tell me that I am SHOL.

I would like to know if it is possible to have “dynamic” data in word (2003) documents. Let me explain, I will start with what we do now and how I would like to fix or change it.
We have approx 35 , we will call them “divisions” for the time being, and each division has a folder on the shared drive. We have approx 700 ,lets call them “customers” for the time, and each “customer” has a folder located in the associated “division” folder on the shared Drive. (\\Drive\Division#1\Customer#1...\\Drive\Division#32\Customer#348\ etc etc etc .)
There is a “MSword2003” document that exists in every “Customer Folder” that contains data about that “customer” (including but not limited too….Contacts, Notes, Customer #’s etc) We will call this the “DeCust.doc” file for the time. A lot of the information in these “DeCust.doc” files can exist in another “customers” “DeCust.doc” files such as a contact name and address. One of the problems we run into is that a contact (lets say Smiths Plumbing Service) may send an email to notify of an address change and the person receiving the email will change the contact’s address in the “DeCust.doc” files of the “customers” that that employee (employee #1) works with but, there are other “DeCust.doc” files in other “customer” folders that the address never gets changed in. When a different employee (employee #2) opens a “deCust.doc” file of a different customer that he/she works with the contact (Smiths Plumbing Service) the address of this “deCust.doc:” file is wrong (not updated).

I would like to solve this problem. I have already developed a Demo VB/Database application to be used in lieu of the “DeCust.doc” files but, I have met Way too much resistance in getting people to switch from using individual docs in each “customer” folder to using a database program. With that being said, I started wondering if there was a way to Link/populate/fill the “contact” information in these “DeCust.Doc” files to a central Database or such that when someone changes an address for a contact it is simultaneously changed in all the other “DeCust.doc” files. Any and ALL ideas would be much appreciated.


Gmack!