Offline use of templates

[Writer]

This question has two parts:

Download of templates from Sharepoint to Local drive:

Does anyone know of how I could synchronise my boss's templates to be
downloaded from Sharepoint (where they currently reside) down to the
local drive: application\data\Microsoft\Word\Templates? And how to
schedule this so that it happens on a regular basis.

Version Verification:

In addition to downloading the templates on a regular basis. My boss
would also like to know how to check whether he has the latest version
of the template or not.

On one hand, I thought perhaps generating some code to check an ini
file that gets downloaded with the templates from Sharepoint to verify
the version number or date and time of the document.

Any ideas on these two problems would be helpful

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Writer

The usual way to do this is with a login script. Each time a user logs in to
the network, a little script checks to see if there's a newer version of the
templates available than are on the local machine, and if required, copies
them down to the local machine.

There are only two ways for your boss could check that he has the latest
version. One is by checking the file date and time of the version on the
server against the version on the local machine. The other is if the
templates themselves disclose a version number or last saved date (ie the
equivalent of Help > About), and if the boss knows the version or last saved
date of the templates on the server.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Writer]

Each time a user logs in to

the network, a little script checks to see if there's a newer version of the
templates available than are on the local machine, and if required, copies
them down to the local machine.

Thank you Shauna for your input - much appreciated. I was wondering
when you say "Login Script" - are you refering to the login script that
is developed say as a DOS Batch file and not a 'Word VBA Script'?

I was rather hoping to find some VBA code that would automatically
check the version everytime that template was accessed - i.e. check
with Sharepoint or the .ini file (filename, date, time) that is
resident somewhere that the template in use is in fact the most recent
version. I will be using Date And Time to check versioning...

If I use a login script, I am still not sure that when my boss is
'offline' as in 'camping in the bush' that he will be able to know
whether he is using the latest version of the template. He wants to be
notified about that fact is all, not really, have the system go off and
locate the next version unless he is 'online'. So i imagine the
'event' that this is all triggered around is whether the user is
offline or online:

ie. What I think should happen is as follows:

Offline - Open template as a .doc - advise user that version is 1)
current or 2) not current
Onlnie - Open template as a .doc - advise user that version is 1)
current (do nothing) or 2) not current, do you wish to download the
latest version and then accesses Sharepoint for the latest version.

Something like that...

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Writer was telling us:
Writer nous racontait que :

Offline - Open template as a .doc - advise user that version is 1)
current or 2) not current

And how can you tell, when Off line, that the current version is not the
most current?

--
Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
(e-mail address removed)
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Writer

Yes, I mean a DOS-type batch file run under Windows, not VBA code.

As Jean-Guy points out, if one wants to know whether X is more recent than
Y, then you need both X and Y available to compare one with the other.

For some further info on issues of this kind, see the thread at
http://groups.google.com.au/group/m...7453a?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#9d6a14996b57453a

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Writer]

Thanks so much Shauna..you are really getting me to think this one
through

I have read the post from the link that you posted - make sense? and
I am curious, how do we access the registry via DOS?
regedit and then what?

I like the solution you propose with using the presence of an H:\ drive
the trigger event.. that is clever... but the part about
"Change the registry settings" - hmmm - that has thrown me a bit..

Is it something you can discuss here or would I be better off
researching it myself?

A solution I was thinking along the lines of was:

At login, if online (ie. detect presence of H:\)

- Download all templates from Sharepoint Templates Doc Library to C:\
blah blah \Templates
- Download global templates that are destined for the Startup
directory.
- Download a file called "Template Version Numbers" that contains all
the latest version numbers (dates and times?) of the templates.
(Maintained Manually by Tech Writer)

Then using two global templates in C:\Startup - "Online Templates" and
"Offline Templates" menus will appear in Word

At login, if offline (ie. detect the absence of H:\)
- don't download any templates - local or global templates - don't do
anything

The two Global templates located in startup will load anyway and the
user will use "Offline templates" as opposed to "Online Templates"

But include some vba code in all templates that confirm the version
number of the template in use by comparing the Template version number
(Word Custom Field in Properties) to the number listed in the "Template
Version Numbers" file (would this be an .ini file? or just a plain .txt
file?)

Msgbox = "This template is version number: PSOv3.0"
"The latest version of this template is: PSOv4.0"
"Please download this version from the Technology
Documentation teamsite"

or something to that effect? What do you think ..

Online users calls the sharepoint templates, and Offline users call the
local templates which are the most recent due to the login script
having been run since the last time that user was on the network.

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Writer was telling us:
Writer nous racontait que :

Thanks so much Shauna..you are really getting me to think this one
through

I have read the post from the link that you posted - make sense?
and I am curious, how do we access the registry via DOS?
regedit and then what?

I like the solution you propose with using the presence of an H:\
drive the trigger event.. that is clever... but the part about
"Change the registry settings" - hmmm - that has thrown me a bit..

Is it something you can discuss here or would I be better off
researching it myself?

A solution I was thinking along the lines of was:

At login, if online (ie. detect presence of H:\)

- Download all templates from Sharepoint Templates Doc Library to C:\
blah blah \Templates
- Download global templates that are destined for the Startup
directory.
- Download a file called "Template Version Numbers" that contains all
the latest version numbers (dates and times?) of the templates.
(Maintained Manually by Tech Writer)

Then using two global templates in C:\Startup - "Online Templates" and
"Offline Templates" menus will appear in Word

At login, if offline (ie. detect the absence of H:\)
- don't download any templates - local or global templates - don't do
anything

The two Global templates located in startup will load anyway and the
user will use "Offline templates" as opposed to "Online Templates"

But include some vba code in all templates that confirm the version
number of the template in use by comparing the Template version number
(Word Custom Field in Properties) to the number listed in the
"Template Version Numbers" file (would this be an .ini file? or just
a plain .txt file?)

Msgbox = "This template is version number: PSOv3.0"
"The latest version of this template is: PSOv4.0"
"Please download this version from the Technology
Documentation teamsite"

or something to that effect? What do you think ..

I think you have a well thought out a good plan... but... again, off line
checking is not going to work.

Bear with me a second or two:

User "Tony" logs on the first time to the system and is online. He never had
the templates, so he gets them from the server.
He is now "to date" with version 1.

Three days later, Tony logs on again online, and there have been changes to
the template, your system warns him and he downloads the templates.
Again, he is now "to date" with version 2.

He goes on a business trip for 5 days.

The day after he leaves, new updates are loaded on the server, version 3.

The next day, or Tony's second day of his trip, he logs on offline. How can
he tell that his template are now not "to date"? He cannot know that
version3 is now available. Your elaborate scheme will not work here.

After his trip he gets back to the office.

Tony logs on and he is warned about the new templates. He decides that he
does not have time to download the template because he has a meeting.

The meeting goes on for a while, he is bushed and goes home to his wife anf
kids.

The next days Tony has to visit a client and he brings his laptop.

Tony logs on offline, now he knows that his template (version 2) are not "to
date" but this is only because he was online the day before and decided to
not download the new templates (version 3). Had he not gone online the day
before, the system would still not know that a new version is available.

So, in my opinion, whatever scheme you elaborate will never work for Off
line cases, unless that once again I missed the tree because of the
forest...


Your plan is good because it will inform users that there are new updates
that should be downloaded.

But, in this case, Shauna's original idea is the best and the easiest (and
what most people use).

Working with he IT people, add a simple script to the log on script that
will automatically downloads that templates whenever necessary. So, if users
are online, they know that they are up to date.

--
Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
(e-mail address removed)
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Writer

As Jean-Guy said, talk with your IT people - writing and deploying scripts
that change registry entries is their bread and butter.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word