Troublesome toolbar ...

S

Sharon M.

Hi folks,

A really frustrating problem here. I have developed a template that has its
own floating toolbar (the main content being a number of AutoText entries
applicable to the template).

I have sent the template to a number of users for testing. Some of the users
have reported that there is NO TOOLBAR!! In case this is attributed to
network restrictions (or such like) I then created a document from the
template and sent that. One user got the document *with* the toolbar ...
another didn't. One tester who created a document from the original template
(but who didn't have the toolbar) sent me a document she had created based on
the template. Lo and behold ... the toolbar! There it was ... large as life.

So, given the detailed explanation above, what (pray) can be the reason for
users not having access to the toolbar. Even my suggestion to go looking for
it (View, Toolbars ...) didn't reveal its presence.

I have developed the template in Word XP, the users with the problem have
Word XP. I'm at a total loss ...

Thanks for any hint of a resolution!

Sharon M.
 
M

Margaret Aldis

It seems to me there are two possibilities here:

1. You haven't saved the toolbar in the custom template. You can check this
using the Organizer - if you find the toolbar is actually stored in your own
Normal.dot then you can transfer it (and any related AutoText entries) to
the custom template. Better still, check in the custom templates as received
by the users.

2. The toolbar isn't immediately visible to users, and they don't know how
to turn it on. You could get around that one either by instruction or by
using an AutoNew/AutoOpen macro to make the toolbar visible.

Note that the fact that you see the toolbar when you open a document sent
back to you doesn't mean the toolbar is "in" the document - it would also be
visible if it was in the template Word has attached to the document on your
machine (a likely situation, if you have stored your template in the normal
place).
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi =?Utf-8?B?U2hhcm9uIE0u?=,
A really frustrating problem here. I have developed a template that has its
own floating toolbar (the main content being a number of AutoText entries
applicable to the template).

I have sent the template to a number of users for testing. Some of the users
have reported that there is NO TOOLBAR!! In case this is attributed to
network restrictions (or such like) I then created a document from the
template and sent that. One user got the document *with* the toolbar ...
another didn't. One tester who created a document from the original template
(but who didn't have the toolbar) sent me a document she had created based on
the template. Lo and behold ... the toolbar! There it was ... large as life.

So, given the detailed explanation above, what (pray) can be the reason for
users not having access to the toolbar. Even my suggestion to go looking for
it (View, Toolbars ...) didn't reveal its presence.

I have developed the template in Word XP, the users with the problem have
Word XP. I'm at a total loss ...
This sounds like a conflict between NormalTemplate or another global template,
plus your template.

1. Open your template and delete the toolbar.

2. Recreate the toolbar. Be very careful to store it in THIS template (and not
"all documents", Normal.dot, or any other entry in the list).

3. Give it a slightly different name than it had before. Word will sometimes
remember whether a toolbar or button has been specifically removed from another
"context" (such as Normal.dot) and this can cause the toolbar (or button) to be
surpressed when it's in another context.

4. Be sure to distribute the template to everyone, and that they put it in their
Templates folder. Otherwise, any document created from the template won't find
the template and then can't display the toolbar.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
S

Sharon M.

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for those pointers. Number 1 sounds the most likely scenario but (and
I failed to mention this in my post) I also opened the user's document on a
computer I have never used before and ... the toolbar was there. This just
makes it all the more curious. However, I will do as you suggest in your
number 1.

Re. your number 2: I had given instructions to the users on how to attach
the toolbar using View/Toolbars ... but it just wasn't listed.

Again, thanks very much!

Sharon
 
S

Sharon M.

Hi Cindy,

Alors, vous etes domicilee dans la belle Suisse (sorry, I can't say that in
German!). I spent a number of years in Geneva and hope to return shortly ...

OK, back to the question. I'm pretty sure that the toolbar is in the new
template but I'll check (see response from Margaret Aldis, and my repl). So,
just moving (or copying) the template from Normal.dot (if indeed that is
where it is located) is not a sure option? It may take me a while to recreate
it but I'll do whatever is necessary.

However, your response raises another question (and one I am very grateful
for!): at least one user was prevented from saving the template in her User
Templates directory due to network restrictions on her company' s LAN. In
that case, I advised her to save the .dot file on her Desktop and double
click it each time she wants to create a new document based on the template
(with the caution, of course, that she wouldn't be able to use File/New from
within Word). Have I understood correctly from your comments below that this
would result in a non-performing template??

Thanks so much for your earlier response ... and the anticipated follow up.
Much appreciated.

Sharon
 
M

Margaret Aldis

Hi Sharon

On looking at your exchange with Cindy, there is perhaps another
possibility. If some of these users already have a template with the same
name as yours, it's possible that that is getting attached in place of your
custom template.

To clarify this - Word finds the template to attach by searching for the
template name in a number of locations - the actual priority order has I
think changed slightly over Word versions, but in 2003 for example Word will
take a template in the same folder as the document ahead of the template in
the User Templates folder. It will do this reattach on the fly, so it is
possible to create a new document from one template, but have it attached
immediately to another (I say this with emotion, as I got caught out on
saving a late macro change on one occasion!).

However, I'm still not sure how the toolbar can be getting into the
*document* from the template - and AutoTexts certainly can't be stored in a
document. It sounds more like this user managed to open and save the
template itself.

One way around all of this might be to get users to use your template as a
global add-in. That way the AutoText entries and the toolbar will always be
available, regardless of current template attachment.
 
C

Cindy M -WordMVP-

Hi =?Utf-8?B?U2hhcm9uIE0u?=,
However, your response raises another question (and one I am very grateful
for!): at least one user was prevented from saving the template in her User
Templates directory due to network restrictions on her company' s LAN. In
that case, I advised her to save the .dot file on her Desktop and double
click it each time she wants to create a new document based on the template
(with the caution, of course, that she wouldn't be able to use File/New from
within Word). Have I understood correctly from your comments below that this
would result in a non-performing template??
This shouldn't be a problem for any documents she created from her own
template. But if she receives documents from others that should be linked to
the template it's possible they won't find her template in that location.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :)
 
S

Sharon M.

Hi Margaret,

The idea of the global add-in is a superb one! Following the instructions in
Word Help, I copied the template to the Startup folder and everything looked
great ... the troublesome toolbar popped up right where it should when I open
Word. I was mega-happy. Except ... none of my paragraph styles or character
styles are there. It seems that my custom toolbar picks up the styles from
Normal. Of course, I can get them using Attach and Automatically update in
Templates and Add-ins but that seems duplication of effort if I have the
template as an auto startup ... doesn't it??

If I can get this final little nuisance sorted out, this will be the answer
to my prayers!!! Thanks *so* much for your help this far.

All the best,

Sharon
 

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