Stopping automatic creation of blank new docs

[mansky99]

How do I stop the Normal template in Word (10.1.6 running on Mac OSX 10.2.8)
from creating a blank new document when I open Word w/o double clicking an
existing file?


Thanks!

Ed

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

We've had this conversation before with other people, and as I remember,
the consensus was that you don't.

If you open an existing document without doing anything to that default
one, it should vanish on its own, to be replaced by the one you just called.

Sorry,
Daiya

 

[mansky99]

Thanks Daiya. I was afraid of that. It's not a major problem. I was hoping
there would be a property of a Document object that I could set in VB before
opening Word so that a new blank document would NOT be created by default. I
thought this question would have come up many times.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ed

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Thanks Daiya. I was afraid of that. It's not a major problem. I was hoping
there would be a property of a Document object that I could set in VB before
opening Word so that a new blank document would NOT be created by default. I
thought this question would have come up many times.

You can do it by AppleScript. (I suppose you could do it in VBA too, but
only by deleting the new doc since by the time VBA can go into operation
Word, and the new blank doc, will have first had to open.)

Instead of double-clicking Word, make an AppleScript to keep either (saved
as Script - .scpt) in the OS Script menu (in Tiger, go to
/Applications/AppleScript/AppleScript Utility, launch it, and choose ˆ Show
script menu in menu bar), or else saved as Application (slower) in
Applications then drag to Dock and click the icon.

Here's the script:


tell application "Microsoft Word"
launch
activate
end tell


That will do it.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

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PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You can do it by AppleScript.

<snip>

Oops. That was part of the conversation before, and I think I totally
forgot. Sorry, Paul.

Ed, the VB property that should let you do it happens to be broken. But,
AppleScript to the rescue.

Daiya