Hi Jerry
Welcome to VBAX

Have a look at the item here.
http://www.vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=290
It is easiest to open a mailmerge document as a doc file, and this can be done with a FollowHyperlink line. As this is merged to a new document in any case, there is no advantage in opening the template. The KB item simply creates the new document when it is opened, with an option for saving to a location specified by datasource fields.