Avimark (veterinary program) to OpenOffice merges fail under Vista

Avimark is the leading veterinary practice management software, and we're
using OpenOffice to create merge documents automatically from within Avimark
(rabies certificates, collection letters, etc.) This works beautifully on
our Windows XP Pro machines, but on the two Vista Business machines, Avimark
can't print any merge documents.

The error we get is:
Server execution failed, ProgID: "com.sun.star.ServiceManager"

We get this error both on the Avimark server (running Vista Business) and
the Avimark client that is running Vista Business. The XP Pro clients are
all fine. The error is the same if we print to a local printer or a network
printer. Non-merge OpenOffice documents print without error. So this is an
issue between Vista, Avimark and OpenOffice when merge documents are being
created.

An Avimark IT tech suggested that a Windows update might have broken the
OpenOffice merge utility, and that uninstalling/reinstalling OO might solve
the problem. We went a step further, uninstalling OpenOffice v2.3 and
installing v2.4, but the bad behavior was unchanged on both Vista computers.

Does anyone know why this fails under Vista, and if there is a workaround?

--John Hupp

"John Hupp" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Avimark is the leading veterinary practice management software, and we're
> using OpenOffice to create merge documents automatically from within
> Avimark (rabies certificates, collection letters, etc.) This works
> beautifully on our Windows XP Pro machines, but on the two Vista Business
> machines, Avimark can't print any merge documents.
>
> The error we get is:
> Server execution failed, ProgID: "com.sun.star.ServiceManager"
>
> We get this error both on the Avimark server (running Vista Business) and
> the Avimark client that is running Vista Business. The XP Pro clients are
> all fine. The error is the same if we print to a local printer or a
> network printer. Non-merge OpenOffice documents print without error. So
> this is an issue between Vista, Avimark and OpenOffice when merge
> documents are being created.
>
> An Avimark IT tech suggested that a Windows update might have broken the
> OpenOffice merge utility, and that uninstalling/reinstalling OO might
> solve the problem. We went a step further, uninstalling OpenOffice v2.3
> and installing v2.4, but the bad behavior was unchanged on both Vista
> computers.
>
> Does anyone know why this fails under Vista, and if there is a workaround?

Wrong version of java?

Check at sun.com/java