UML Question - Relationships

[Bill Egge]

If I diagramed the relationship between a word document and a mail merge data source (excel file for example) what kind of association would I use?

[TrtnJohn]

I use the following terms to determine this myself:

"is a" = Generalization
"has a" = Associations

I use aggregate as a strong "has a" relationship.  For example, when the lifetimes are strongly tied together or one cannot exist without the other.

In your case it sounds like the Word document "has an" Excel file merged into it.  And the Excel document "is a" mail merge data source.