Group Templates on new server

[Luis]

We have a lot of group templates that was sitting on a network share. Share1
we'll call it. The path was something like this \\share1\office\templates.
I have consolidated some file servers and moved the templates to this new
server. Share2. Now it looks something like this \\share2\group\templates.

For some reason when employees try open some of these templates it takes
either a really longtime or it gives them an error. Also if someone would
have saved one before the change, to their own home directory, local or
network, it will do the same thing. As soon as i turn back on the share1 it
works great again. I have searched through local registries and have some
entries pointing to share1. i change them and still the same thing.

These templates all have a company logo image inserted as header. Can
someone help me out with this error?

 

[Charles Kenyon]

It looks to me like the problem you are having is that existing documents
are searching for your templates. If that is the problem, please say so. If
it is actually that Word has trouble finding the templates when you want to
create new documents, you may need to redefine your workgroup templates
location on each computer. Tools > Options > File Location.

Working correctly, templates are _not_ opened to create new documents.
Rather, they are found under the File > New dialog and used to create new
documents. For more on the different kinds of templates, tabs on the file
new dialog, and locations of templates folders see
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm.

 

[Luis]

Yes, it does have problems with existing documents searching for the
template. It also have problems opening the templates from it's new
location. I have changed the group template path within the tools > options.
These all have a .gif or .tiff in them as the letter head.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

OK. The problem with existing documents is a pain.

The MVP site has a page on writing a macro to find and replace in all files
in a directory. This would be your starting point.
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/BatchFR.htm You would, instead, be
opening all documents and attaching a template that can be found.

The simplest thing to do with existing documents is open them and attach the
normal.dot template to them. This works unless you have specialized macros,
toolbars, or AutoText that you need in the documents. You would run the
macro at night because it will still take the long time to run. You can
speed it up if you can disconnect from the network while running it. Make
sure that you are _not_ updating styles from the new template.

Otherwise, you would need to reattach to the correct template. That is more
of a challenge than I would want to spend the time on.