Disable UNC path substitution

[Obi-wan]

Is it possible to disable the substitution of UNC (\\server\share) path
substitution for network drive letter locations in MS Office Documents, in
particular Word?

If I add a hyperlink for let’s say M:\Standards\Templates, when someone
clicks on it they are taken to \\server\share\Standards\Templates. This
causes some undue confusion to users. I would like to know if there is a
setting or perhaps a different way to create the hyperlinks, such that the
drive letter does not get substituted?

Please advise, thank you,

John

 

[Peter Jamieson]

A couple of recent messages:

from me
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The registry setting described in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322955
still seems to function in (say) Word 2007 if modified so that it is
specified for the appropriate version of Word. If for example you insert
the document's pathname using a { FILENAME \p } field you should see
either the mapped drive name or UNC path name depending on the value of
the setting (you may need to close/restart Word and you will need to
update the field to see the difference after a registry change.
So if you have control over your users' registries that could be an
option. However,
a. It's as well to be wary of articles that only mention older
versions of Word, even if the setting appears to work with later versions.
b. I don't know what other aspects of Word behaviour this setting
controls - e.g. perhaps it affects OLE links in unhelpful ways, etc. etc.
c. given (a) and (b), perhaps it would be better to rely on using a
bit of VBA to insert the UNC pathname regardless of a user's registry
settings. (Can't help there off the top of my head).
--------------------------------
from eheiny (not sure if this tells you more than is in that article
except changes for Word 2007 v. Word 2002):
--------------------------------
Adapting Microsofts instructions for Word 2002
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323013/EN-US/), I was able to manually
configure the registry setting in Windows to force UNC (Value Data = 2)
on my
system running Word 2007 under Windows 7 (32 bit) as follows.
1. Quit all Microsoft Office programs.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type regedit and then click OK.
4. In the left pane of Registry Editor, find and select the following
registry subkey (folder):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options
5. While the Options subkey is selected, point to New on the Edit
menu, and
then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
6. Type Volume and then press ENTER.
7. While Volume is selected, click Modify on the Edit menu.
8. In the Value Data box, type the value (according to the
following chart)
that you want Word to use when you work with files on a network drive, and
then click OK.
Value Data Description