Document.Variables bad for docx file in Microsoft Live

[David Thielen]

Hi;

I create a variable (document is an object of the class Document):

object obj = "dave";
document.Variables.Add("WR_DATA", ref obj);

I then save the document, close it, and reload it using:
foreach (Variable var in document.Variables)
{
if (var.Name == "WR_DATA")
{
buf = var.Value;
break;
}

And get a totally random string like "w:autofitToFirstFixedWidthCe"

If we run on a Word file that is on the local drive this works fine.
And this is code that has worked fine forever for local & networked
office documents forever.

??? - thanks - dave


david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi David,

create a variable (document is an object of the class Document):

object obj = "dave";
document.Variables.Add("WR_DATA", ref obj);

I then save the document, close it, and reload

The problem just started happening recently? As in, since the most
recent Office 2007 updates were installed, including SP2? There's
a known bug in a hotfix, that was rolled up in SP2, that breaks
Word 2007 document variables. There's an item up on the Connect
site about the problem.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17
2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi all,

I did found some Document.Variables related bugs record, but not sure any
of them fits in David's situation.

Cindy, could you please point me to the connect item that you mentioned?

David, is this happening to both DOCX and DOC format saved on Office Live
or just DOCX? Plus Cindy's question.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Cindy M.]

Hi Jie,

Cindy, could you please point me to the connect item that you mentioned?

https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?
FeedbackID=458719&SiteID=470&wa=wsignin1.0

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[David Thielen]

It happens only if the file is saved in Microsoft Live.

thanks - dave

Hi all,

I did found some Document.Variables related bugs record, but not sure any
of them fits in David's situation.

Cindy, could you please point me to the connect item that you mentioned?

David, is this happening to both DOCX and DOC format saved on Office Live
or just DOCX? Plus Cindy's question.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

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==================================================
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david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[David Thielen]

It won't let me access that page. Is there another link?

thanks - dave

Hi Jie,


https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?
FeedbackID=458719&SiteID=470&wa=wsignin1.0

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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

david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi,

Thanks to Cindy for the link. The issue on the connect site is related to a
hotfix described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969961/.

But if the problem David met can only be reproduced with docs stored in
Office Live, it could be issues in the Office Live Add-in.

David, you may want to try post your question on the Office Live support
forum here: http://ask.officelive.com/workspace. There is also email
support option on that page.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
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[David Thielen]

Are you sure this is the correct hotfix? It does not mention the
Variable property.

thanks - dave

Hi,

Thanks to Cindy for the link. The issue on the connect site is related to a
hotfix described in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969961/.

But if the problem David met can only be reproduced with docs stored in
Office Live, it could be issues in the Office Live Add-in.

David, you may want to try post your question on the Office Live support
forum here: http://ask.officelive.com/workspace. There is also email
support option on that page.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

==================================================
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==================================================
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david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi David,

Are you sure this is the correct hotfix? It does not mention the
Variable property.

It's this hotfix that causes the problems with document variables.
It fixes a password problem, but causes another problem.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17
2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[David Thielen]

Oh - lovely. So stay away from this and hope they fix the Variables
issue soon?

thanks - dave

Hi David,


It's this hotfix that causes the problems with document variables.
It fixes a password problem, but causes another problem.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17
2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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

david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi David,

I can't say whether or not that hotfix problem is related to the one you're
having - before the product group confirms.

I can try some internal channels for more info if you let me know your Word
version number and service pack info.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
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[David Thielen]

I've run all updates the Microsoft Updates tells me to run, and only
that - nothing else. WinXP & Office 2007.

thanks - dave

Hi David,

I can't say whether or not that hotfix problem is related to the one you're
having - before the product group confirms.

I can try some internal channels for more info if you let me know your Word
version number and service pack info.

Thanks,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

==================================================
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david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi David,

So stay away from this and hope they fix the Variables
issue soon?

IF this turns out to be the cause of your problem, then
yes. Or get away from Doc Variables (use a CustomXMLPart,
instead and link to content controls rather than
DocVariable fields).

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi David,

Oh - lovely. So stay away from this and hope they fix the Variables
issue soon?

Ah. Or save the documents in the 2003 file format.

-- Cindy Meister

 

[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi David,

I've sent mail for more information on this issue, will update here when I
get a response.

Regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
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[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi,

Just got confirmation that the fix for KB 969961 will be out in early July.

Still not sure that will fix the issue David met. I will keep tracking this
post.

Regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
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[David Thielen]

This is killing us - our app does not work without this Variables
data. It is corrupted in both WordML and DOCX (RTF appears to be ok).
We need a work-around immediately.

Is there another way to store our data in the Word file? And for a
DOCX work-around, it needs to include people running Word
2000/2002/2003 with the Office 2007 file read/write AddIn.

thanks - dave

Hi,

Just got confirmation that the fix for KB 969961 will be out in early July.

Still not sure that will fix the issue David met. I will keep tracking this
post.

Regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

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==================================================
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david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[David Thielen]

Hi;

Is there a link anywhere on how to use CustomXMLPart?

thanks - dave

Hi David,


IF this turns out to be the cause of your problem, then
yes. Or get away from Doc Variables (use a CustomXMLPart,
instead and link to content controls rather than
DocVariable fields).

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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

david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[David Thielen]

Is there a KB article that references this error? I need to send this
to our customers so they understand that this is a bug in Word and not
in our code.

thanks - dave

Hi,

Just got confirmation that the fix for KB 969961 will be out in early July.

Still not sure that will fix the issue David met. I will keep tracking this
post.

Regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(e-mail address removed).

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==================================================
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david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi David,

There is no KB article for this issue at this time, I'm sorry for that. The
KB is usually available together with the fix.

Regarding workarounds, as Cindy suggested:

1. Use Word 2003 format temporarily.
2. Use a CustomXMLPart to store the data instead of document variables.

Or, you may also take a look at the Document.CustomDocumentProperties, very
similar to document variables in usage, can be quickly coded to temporarily
replace the doc variables.

The CustomXMLPart is an elegant replacement of doc variables, but need more
efforts to start over. And the Content Controls just don't work with
earlier versions of Word (2003, XP, 2000).

For CustomXMLPart sample code & video, check out this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb510382.aspx

The sample is written in VSTO, but the use of Word OM is just the same.

Regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
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