Multiuser access to a file on our server

[Charles Warner]

We are using a number of "boiler plate" type text entries that get
inserted into documents by a function "fnInsertText" that's in the
Normal template on each workstation. The text entries are arguements
passed to fnInsertText, which performs certain operations on them and
then inserts them into the document. There are about 100 text
entries of one-sentence size. They are subject to continual
Add/Change/Delete operations.

I'd like some ideas on how and where to store these text entries on
our network so that they are available to all the workstations, and
can be maintained by editing a single file on the server. I thought
about retrieving them from the server as a tab-delimited text file and
putting them into an array in the workstation module that contains
"fnInsertText" ... something like that, but there are probably better
ways ...

I assume that accessing them directly from a file on the server would
create a great many problems related to sharing, network speed, etc.

Thanks very much

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Charles,

I would recommend that you have a central location for your masters which
you edit, and an automated means of copying the masters to the individual
PCs, using login scripts or SBS or something similar.

You could include them all within a single template file as AutoText
entries. The template would reside Word's startup folder, where the AutoText
entries would be available to all macros.

See here for more ideas

Distributing macros to other users
http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/MacrosVBA/DistributeMacros.htm

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACT]

Hi Charles,

You can have a logon script check the version of a file on the user's
machine against the version of the same file on the server and copy it to
the user's machine if the server version is later.

--
Please post any further questions or followup to the newsgroups for the
benefit of others who may be interested. Unsolicited questions forwarded
directly to me will only be answered on a paid consulting basis.
Hope this helps
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Perry]

I'd like some ideas on how and where to store these text entries on
If y're networked is equiped with a Share Point portal server
you can also think about using Document Workspaces:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/spptsdk/htm
l/AboutDocWorkspace.asp

Krgrds,
Perry

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP - DELETE UPPERCASE CHARACTERS FROM EMAIL ADDRESS"

 

[Charles Warner]

Thank you Jonathan ... the article from the MVP site was very helpful
.... and not something I noticed when I was over there.

 

[Charles Warner]

Thank you Doug for your idea ... but it's something I'd have to work
out with the Network Admin, who has not been very cooperative in
adding "all kinds of wield stuff" to the network ... I'd like to try
an approach I can use directly within Word, if that is possible.

 

[Charles Warner]

Thanks Perry ... I'm not sure whether Share Point is on the network.
My preference is to work within Word if at all possible, as the
Network Admin is a little hard to deal with. That way, if revisions
need to made in what I'm doing, I can manage it without a hassle.

 

[Charles Warner]

A question, after reading your replies: Can I use FileCopy to
accomplish the transfer to the workstation?

Typically, the user only opens Word once or twice a day, and the file
could be copied at that time. Are there some disadvantages to this
approach?

 

[Perry]

You can use FileCopy to copy files across as long as
the document/template the code is executing from isn't
the one y're trying to copy.

If y're trying to copy TemplateA.dot, no instances of TemplateA.dot are open
and y're running the code from TemplateB.dot, y're ok.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vbenlr98/ht
ml/vastmfilecopy.asp

Krgrds,
Perry

 

[Lars-Eric Gisslén]

Charles,

If you have Windows 2003 Server you have Windows Sharepoint Services alredy.
It's included in Win 2003 Server. What you don't have (unless you buy it) is
Sharepoint Portal Server which is installed on top of WSS and requires SPS
clients on the client machines.

 

[Charles Warner]

Thank you Lars-Eric ... I'll have to ask the network people about this
on Moday.