Hyperlink to Word template - from MS Word

[Steve]

Hello everyone,

I'm kind of stuck in a rut, and hoping there's a
solution Here's the situation:

I want to create an index of our company's set of
controlled documents and custom templates. I'd like to
create the index in MS Word or even MS Excel. Our existing
templates use prompts and fields so that when a new
document is created from the template, users are asked a
few qn's and the appropriate fields filled out
automatically.

Now, when a user double clicks on a template (*.dot) in
Windows Explorer, or by using the File --> New menu, the
default action is for a "New" document to be created from
the template, not to actually open the template.

The problem is that if I hyperlink to a template file from
my index, the template actually opens up, and a new
document is not created. Then, the autoprompts do not work
as expected. Also, the user is then forced to save the
edited document as a template.

Does anybody know how I can link to templates from my
index, and have them create a new document from the
template when they click the link? Any help on how to do
this in Word/Excel or even other ideas on a different way
of creating the index would be very very much appreciated.

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Steve,

See if this article helps:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278627

=======
Hello everyone,

I'm kind of stuck in a rut, and hoping there's a
solution Here's the situation:

I want to create an index of our company's set of
controlled documents and custom templates. I'd like to
create the index in MS Word or even MS Excel. Our existing
templates use prompts and fields so that when a new
document is created from the template, users are asked a
few qn's and the appropriate fields filled out
automatically.

Now, when a user double clicks on a template (*.dot) in
Windows Explorer, or by using the File --> New menu, the
default action is for a "New" document to be created from
the template, not to actually open the template.

The problem is that if I hyperlink to a template file from
my index, the template actually opens up, and a new
document is not created. Then, the autoprompts do not work
as expected. Also, the user is then forced to save the
edited document as a template.

Does anybody know how I can link to templates from my
index, and have them create a new document from the
template when they click the link? Any help on how to do
this in Word/Excel or even other ideas on a different way
of creating the index would be very very much appreciated.

Thanks to all in advance. <<
--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Charles Kenyon]

You may want to take a look at <URL:
http://www.addbalance.com/word/templatesmenu.htm>. This is a look at
different ways of approaching / solving your problems.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Steve]

Thank you Bob and Martinique.

Bob, the link you referred me to is a great workaround
(can't see why I didn't think of that myself) however, I
have about 250+ templates and I'm thinking that it may
complexify it a bit too much (creating shortcuts to the
templates and then Hyperlinking to the shortcuts *.lnk).
I'm still considering it though looking at the option
posted by Martinique.

Thanks for the explanation Martinique - it sounds so
logical now that you've explained it that way. However, I
haven't done any macro/VBA programming - could you point
me in the direction to get started or even provide a link
that may give me some ideas?

Thanks either way

Regards,

Steve.

 

[Steve]

Hello Charles,

Thanks a million for the links. I'm having a look through
and testing out the options - Macrobutton looks good.
Never done anythink like this (I focus on network
support/consultancy yet a client has me doing some
document management) and this is very interesting.

Thanks to all for the help. Haven't got the Macrobuttons
taking input from displayed text but I'll figure it out :\

Steve

 

[Steve]

Hello again everyone...

It has been and endevour, yet I think I've sorted the
issue out, with great thanks to Charles Kenyon for his
macro code.

Still in initial testing (need to test ease of update for
the administrator of the document control system, among
other things) but it's working great for me.

I basically created a macrobutton that runs a macro. The
macro uses the display text of the button as information
as to what template needs to be launched (all this info
was taken from examples given by Charles). The only issue
was that the macro used the workgroup templates location
as the path to the template. I wanted to be able to copy
the index and templates to a CD for example, and still
have the macro work. So I change a line or two that used a
path relative to the current document as the path to the
templates.

Thanks to all.

Steve

 

[Android]

I had tried this hyperlink workaround for a similar proble. Never worked for
me. If anyone had actually used it successfully, I'd like to hear how it
was done.

I ended up using the "macrobutton" solution posted mentioned by Steve in one
of his responses in this string. That works well, although it requires a
double click.

Regards..

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Android,

You can change the macrobutton to need only a single click by including this
line in your AutoExec procedure:

Options.ButtonFieldClicks=1

 

[Graham Mayor]

Hi, Android,

You can change the macrobutton to need only a single click by
including this line in your AutoExec procedure:

Options.ButtonFieldClicks=1

Do note however that while this will solve the immediate problem, it
prevents the use of macrobutton fields as place markers, so make sure that
this change is only made to the document template and not to normal.dot


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.dsl.pipex.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Android,

The hyperlink to a .LNK file does work, but be sure
that the hyperlink shows the .LNK name in the field
code, which will happen if you follow the steps in
the article as they're written
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=278627
otherwise it links to the .dot file rather than the
shortcut and doesn't solve the problem.

=========
I had tried this hyperlink workaround for a similar proble. Never worked for
me. If anyone had actually used it successfully, I'd like to hear how it
was done.

I ended up using the "macrobutton" solution posted mentioned by Steve in one
of his responses in this string. That works well, although it requires a
double click.

Regards.. >>
--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*