Template issues when moving Word templates from Windows to Mac

[matt_google]

I use both Office XP (WinXP) and Office 2004 (Mac OS X) and routinely
move documents between the two. However I have noticed some strange
behaviour with Word templates.

If I create a doc in Word XP based on a template I can copy that
document to my Mac and update it in Word 2004. But whenever I try to
save the document I get a dialog asking if I also want to save changes
to 'Document 1' (or 'Document 2' etc). The only way I can get rid of
this is by explicitly removing the template from the documents (via
Templates and Add-Ins).

It's almost like Word is treating the template (that it can't find
because it's over on the WinXP machine) like a new document (the
'Document 1' type naming I see is consistent with the default Word
naming for new documents, ie it increments as more documents are
opened) *but* this document is not listed in the open documents
windows.

This doesn't happen in Word XP - even on a machine that doesn't have
the original template.

Has anybody else experience this and / or know how to stop it ?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I am not quite sure what's going on here.

But I THINK that you have two documents open, the one you are working on,
and the blank one you have created.

When you save, Word will save the currently active document. However, if
the blank document created when Word started has any changes, Word will
prompt you to save that too.

However, the scenario you describe is consistent with your having created a
new document from a template. When you go to save, you will be prompted
because some of the changes you have made affect the document, others (for
example, adding an AutoText) will affect the attached template.

If you remove the attached template, whatever change you made that impacted
the template would instead be saved in the Normal template, and you won't be
prompted for that.

Hope this helps


On 13/9/05 3:12 PM, in article
(e-mail address removed),

I use both Office XP (WinXP) and Office 2004 (Mac OS X) and routinely
move documents between the two. However I have noticed some strange
behaviour with Word templates.

If I create a doc in Word XP based on a template I can copy that
document to my Mac and update it in Word 2004. But whenever I try to
save the document I get a dialog asking if I also want to save changes
to 'Document 1' (or 'Document 2' etc). The only way I can get rid of
this is by explicitly removing the template from the documents (via
Templates and Add-Ins).

It's almost like Word is treating the template (that it can't find
because it's over on the WinXP machine) like a new document (the
'Document 1' type naming I see is consistent with the default Word
naming for new documents, ie it increments as more documents are
opened) *but* this document is not listed in the open documents
windows.

This doesn't happen in Word XP - even on a machine that doesn't have
the original template.

Has anybody else experience this and / or know how to stop it ?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[matt_google]

John

Thanks for your reply.

"But I THINK that you have two documents open, the one you are working
on, and the blank one you have created."

I agree that it does seem like that, but I definitely only have one
document open. I can close Word completely, open a single document,
make a minor (one character) change - if I then save I get the "do you
want to save Document 1" message. There is no other document open (at
least it doesn't display in the Word Window menu, nor can I Command` to
go to it).

Also, if I choose to save changes to 'Document 1', the save dialog
defaults to Document Template as the format (so Word definitely thinks
this it is a template)

This is why it seems like Word is going:
- Hmm there is a template attached to this doc
- Oops, can't find it
- I know, I'll just open a brand new document, call it Document 1 (cos
I don't know the name) and pretend that the new document is the
template. But I won't show it as an actual document cos it's really a
template ...

"However, the scenario you describe is consistent with your having
created a new document from a template. When you go to save, you will
be prompted because some of the changes you have made affect the
document, others (for example, adding an AutoText) will affect the
attached template."

Yes - except for two things:
- I get this for *any* trivial change (eg a single character in the
document) which should not affect the template
- Normally the message in this case would be something like "Do you
want to save changes to the document template". It seems as though in
this case Word thinks the mysterious document is not a template (but
not a real document either)

Hence why I am confused ...

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hmmmm....

Go to Word>Preferences>Save. In the box "Save word files as..." what format
is specified?

If that had somehow been set to "Document Template", that would produce the
symptom. But I can't see how that would happen by accident!

If that had happened, it would indeed try to save everything as a template
(because it *is* a template).

"Document 1" is simply the default document name. Word can't operate
without a document open, so when you start Word it creates one. The
document name can't be blank, so it calls it "Document n" where "n" is the
number of documents created in this session.

When you attempt to save, Word will ask if you want to change the name.

Cheers


On 16/9/05 11:33 AM, in article
(e-mail address removed),

John

Thanks for your reply.

"But I THINK that you have two documents open, the one you are working
on, and the blank one you have created."

I agree that it does seem like that, but I definitely only have one
document open. I can close Word completely, open a single document,
make a minor (one character) change - if I then save I get the "do you
want to save Document 1" message. There is no other document open (at
least it doesn't display in the Word Window menu, nor can I Command` to
go to it).

Also, if I choose to save changes to 'Document 1', the save dialog
defaults to Document Template as the format (so Word definitely thinks
this it is a template)

This is why it seems like Word is going:
- Hmm there is a template attached to this doc
- Oops, can't find it
- I know, I'll just open a brand new document, call it Document 1 (cos
I don't know the name) and pretend that the new document is the
template. But I won't show it as an actual document cos it's really a
template ...

"However, the scenario you describe is consistent with your having
created a new document from a template. When you go to save, you will
be prompted because some of the changes you have made affect the
document, others (for example, adding an AutoText) will affect the
attached template."

Yes - except for two things:
- I get this for *any* trivial change (eg a single character in the
document) which should not affect the template
- Normally the message in this case would be something like "Do you
want to save changes to the document template". It seems as though in
this case Word thinks the mysterious document is not a template (but
not a real document either)

Hence why I am confused ...

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410