Revising Macros without Losing Autotext

[Steve Z]

First, a quick thank you to all of you who devote your time answering questions like these, even if sometimes the answer is that it can't be done

We have a network of 150 user workstations running MS Word 2000. Each of these machines has a modified Normal.dot holding a large number of macros that allow them to navigate to Novell servers on opposite sides of the state. The servers are going to be removed and replaced with Windows 2000 servers, requiring a change in the path. The current code reads

With Dialogs(wdDialogFileSaveAs
.Name = "\\XXXXXXX\XXX\XXXXXXX\XXXXXXXX\XXXX\XXXXXXXXXX\
dlgAnswer = .Sho
End Wit

End Su

This code will have to be replaced on each machine and we have no problem scripting the start-up to replace the Normal.dot. Now comes the problem. Each worker has a copy of Normal.dot on their machine and it was not made a read-only from the network in order to allow them to build custom Autotext and AutoCorrect entries. If we simply replace the Normal.dot, they lose all of them. We can back up the Autotext and AutoCorrect entries and have the users restore individually, but some of the staff using these things have about enough knowledge to be very, very dangerous, and I just KNOW a number of them will lose their entries, since several had to be led by hand to create them in the first place

Now to the question. Does anyone know of a way to script a change on startup that would simply replace the (wdDialogFileSaveAs) path in Normal.dot with the new path? Or, as I indicated earlier, are we in a position where it can't be done? We've scratched our heads and tested several theories, due to the way Microsoft stores the template, we see no options other than a universal replacement and hope for the best

Thank you so much for any assistance, I was unable to find anything that addressed this particular situation in the other postings and links.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Don't use normal.dot for this. Normal.dot should never be shared and seldom
should be standardized.

See http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for step-by-step
instructions on moving / sharing / copying customizations including
AutoText, AutoCorrect, keyboard assignments, macros, etc.

First, a quick thank you to all of you who devote your time answering

questions like these, even if sometimes the answer is that it can't be done.

We have a network of 150 user workstations running MS Word 2000. Each of

these machines has a modified Normal.dot holding a large number of macros
that allow them to navigate to Novell servers on opposite sides of the
state. The servers are going to be removed and replaced with Windows 2000
servers, requiring a change in the path. The current code reads:

With Dialogs(wdDialogFileSaveAs)
.Name = "\\XXXXXXX\XXX\XXXXXXX\XXXXXXXX\XXXX\XXXXXXXXXX\"
dlgAnswer = .Show
End With

End Sub


This code will have to be replaced on each machine and we have no problem

scripting the start-up to replace the Normal.dot. Now comes the problem.
Each worker has a copy of Normal.dot on their machine and it was not made a
read-only from the network in order to allow them to build custom Autotext
and AutoCorrect entries. If we simply replace the Normal.dot, they lose all
of them. We can back up the Autotext and AutoCorrect entries and have the
users restore individually, but some of the staff using these things have
about enough knowledge to be very, very dangerous, and I just KNOW a number
of them will lose their entries, since several had to be led by hand to
create them in the first place.

Now to the question. Does anyone know of a way to script a change on

startup that would simply replace the (wdDialogFileSaveAs) path in
Normal.dot with the new path? Or, as I indicated earlier, are we in a
position where it can't be done? We've scratched our heads and tested
several theories, due to the way Microsoft stores the template, we see no
options other than a universal replacement and hope for the best.

Thank you so much for any assistance, I was unable to find anything that

addressed this particular situation in the other postings and links.

 

[Jonathan West]

Hi Steve

As you are discovering, you really should not use normal.dot for anything
other than customizations made by individual users.

This article describes how to distribute macros

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

Given that you already *have* a bunch of macros in lots of normal.dot
template, you now have the problem of getting rid of them in order to use
the ones in the add-in template I recommend you use instead.

This will be easier if all the macros are in the same module or modules in
each user's normal.dot. if they are, then you can create a VBScript that
runs on login which starts word and removes the relevant module(s) using the
OrganizerDelete method.

Once your corporate macros are out of each user's normal.dot, it can revert
to being a scratchpad for individual users. You can then replace the
corporate add-ins much more easily whenever you need to in future.


--
Regards
Jonathan West - Word MVP
www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk
Please reply to the newsgroup

First, a quick thank you to all of you who devote your time answering

questions like these, even if sometimes the answer is that it can't be done.

We have a network of 150 user workstations running MS Word 2000. Each of

these machines has a modified Normal.dot holding a large number of macros
that allow them to navigate to Novell servers on opposite sides of the
state. The servers are going to be removed and replaced with Windows 2000
servers, requiring a change in the path. The current code reads:

With Dialogs(wdDialogFileSaveAs)
.Name = "\\XXXXXXX\XXX\XXXXXXX\XXXXXXXX\XXXX\XXXXXXXXXX\"
dlgAnswer = .Show
End With

End Sub


This code will have to be replaced on each machine and we have no problem

scripting the start-up to replace the Normal.dot. Now comes the problem.
Each worker has a copy of Normal.dot on their machine and it was not made a
read-only from the network in order to allow them to build custom Autotext
and AutoCorrect entries. If we simply replace the Normal.dot, they lose all
of them. We can back up the Autotext and AutoCorrect entries and have the
users restore individually, but some of the staff using these things have
about enough knowledge to be very, very dangerous, and I just KNOW a number
of them will lose their entries, since several had to be led by hand to
create them in the first place.

Now to the question. Does anyone know of a way to script a change on

startup that would simply replace the (wdDialogFileSaveAs) path in
Normal.dot with the new path? Or, as I indicated earlier, are we in a
position where it can't be done? We've scratched our heads and tested
several theories, due to the way Microsoft stores the template, we see no
options other than a universal replacement and hope for the best.

Thank you so much for any assistance, I was unable to find anything that

addressed this particular situation in the other postings and links.