MS Access Error: "External table not in the expected format" when trying to open linked table which previously worked
<p>I have some queries in my Access database which pull data from Excel files that appear in the database as linked tables.  They have worked just fine, until suddenly and inexplicably I was getting the error "External table is not in the expected format," when trying to access them.</p>

<p>I thought it might have to do with the fact that I was using a macro-enabled workbook, but it was fine before.  I do have a mail merge set up in Word which is linked to the database, and using one of the aforementioned queries.</p>