Complicated template startup problem

[Andrew Murray]

We have some 15 regional offices in our WAN and each has
its own Word 2000 letter template. They are all placed in
their own sub-folder of our group template share. However,
each template differs from the others only in a small
amount of address info so I can create one single template
which fills in a document variable field based on the
unique folder it is started from. So far so good.

But I still have to duplicate the template to 15 folders
each time I make a change. As a programmer it seems there
should be a way to have only _one_ template which is
somehow parametised based on the startup folder.
Using .lnk files means that not only does Word no longer
recognise them as .dot files but the unique startup
information is lost. And the problem of winword.exe
template.dot /mOfficeName is well documented (Why doesn't
it get fixed I wonder?)

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Andrew,

But I still have to duplicate the template to 15 folders
each time I make a change. As a programmer it seems there
should be a way to have only _one_ template which is
somehow parametised based on the startup folder.

Would there be something on the local machines or in the
User profile that you could "ask" to find out which location
the template is being used in? Then you wouldn't have to
make 15 different copies? Or create a registry key that
holds this information for each user?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jan
24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[Andrew Murray]

Cindy,

Thanks, yes I could but I think that would be more work on
some 150 PCs spread over a large geographical area than
copying 15 templates.

Andrew

 

[Word Heretic]

G'day "Andrew Murray" <[email protected]>,

hokay dokey. Faced this one before, here's what I did.

Everyone uses same folder. That being said, you now use folders to
represent document PURPOSING or TYPE rather than user location.

You make a single global template and distribute to all users to whack
into their startup dir for Word. It includes code to check the
registry for your custom geographical settings and if not present,
prompt the user with a simple dialog to choose their country and role
sub-type. (Eg Technical Writers need more tools, different departments
require specialist dictionaries and the like)

This last bit can also be triggered as part of the install routine
instead, to drag in the extra files from the original distribution
package.

This global then declares stuff like this in a std code module:

Public LocalCountry as String

or even

Public IsAustralia as Boolean

if you have just Aus / US for eg. I didn't, I had Europe as well :-(
Anyway...

Your Autoexec routine in the global susses out the registry for the
settings and sets these public variables.

Here's where we get extra heretically tricky. <Wiggles eyebrows>

Your global template can hold customized autotext entries.

All your single-source templates now need a reference made via VBE >
Tools > Reference to your global template. This makes your public
variables visible. Now you have the best of both worlds!

Document content can use autotext fields to drag in changed
boilerplate. Program code can do simple

Select Case LocalCountry

I wrote up a nice discussion on Boilerplates for my Word Spellbook, as
a stand-alone extract it should be available www.raycomm.com but
doesnt appear to be yet.

We have some 15 regional offices in our WAN and each has
its own Word 2000 letter template. They are all placed in
their own sub-folder of our group template share. However,
each template differs from the others only in a small
amount of address info so I can create one single template
which fills in a document variable field based on the
unique folder it is started from. So far so good.

But I still have to duplicate the template to 15 folders
each time I make a change. As a programmer it seems there
should be a way to have only _one_ template which is
somehow parametised based on the startup folder.
Using .lnk files means that not only does Word no longer
recognise them as .dot files but the unique startup
information is lost. And the problem of winword.exe
template.dot /mOfficeName is well documented (Why doesn't
it get fixed I wonder?)

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Steve Hudson

Word Heretic, Sydney, Australia
Tricky stuff with Word or words for you.
Email: (e-mail address removed)
Products: http://www.geocities.com/word_heretic/products.html
Spellbooks: 728 pages of dump left and dropping...

The VBA Beginner's Spellbook: For all VBA users.

 

[Cindy Meister -WordMVP-]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks, yes I could but I think that would be more work on
some 150 PCs spread over a large geographical area than
copying 15 templates.

1) For the first suggestion, I'm talking about doing the
checking from within the template code

2) For the second, I'd think your network admin could use a
policy to generate the key on bootup

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jan
24 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail