"User Information" keeps reverting to previous state

[CR Geissler]

Hi, this is strange.

We are using some form templates (.dot) that automatically populate
the author's name and address at the bottom of the letter. That data
is picked up from the field found under TOOLS>OPTIONS>USER
INFORMATION>Mailing Address.

It works great, except for a couple users they have tried to change
the mailing address information, click ok, then reopen the letter --
but the address won't update with the changes, the old address
appears. When I go back to the field, it too has the old address. If
I make the change again and click OK, then check the field, it still
has the change. But after I reopen the document, Word reverts to the
incorrect address.

I tried everything including restarting word, restarting the computer
and doing the procedure in a different template AND blank document.
Just when we think we have the problem solved, we open the template
document and the old address appears again.

This is supposed to be a timesaving process, but right now these
technical problems are timewasters.

Any ideas? Does it matter that we are accessing MSWord through a
Citrix Remote desktop?

Thanks,
Colin

 

[Terry Farrell]

Please clarify that you are picking up the username and address from Tools,
Options, User tab?

If the change to the the Username is not being remembered, it is due to a
bad third party add-in that is stopping the change from being saved. Adobe
and Norton (Symantec) are notorious for crappy add-ins.

See how to find add-ins

http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CheckIfAddinsInstalled.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx

 

[CR Geissler]

Hi Terry,

Good question -- the same one my colleauge asked -- Yes, the document
is picking up the address from the Tools>Options>UserTab and not from
some other form field. We aren't using the "User name" field only
"Mailing Address".

When I show the field codes (ALT+F9) it shows "{ USERADDRESS \*
MERGEFORMAT }.

I checked out both of the links you sent. There aren't any addins or
templates that aren't common to both systems that work and are having
this problem. There aren't any Norton or Adobe addins either.

Could it be that there is a character limit in the Mailing Address
field and we are hitting it? Then the 'changes' we are making are to
add the missing characters from the end, which appear to be saved, but
when we restart the application they disappear again?

What is the character limit of that box?

Thanks for you help Terry.

Colin

 

[CR Geissler]

I have done some further checking. If I enter the following into the
Mailing Address field under TOOLS>OPTIONS>USER INFORMATION:

1*2345678*
2*2345678*
3*2345678*
4*2345678*
5*2345678*
6*2345678*
7*2345678*
8*2345678*
9*2345678*
10*345678*
11*345678*
12*345678*
13*345678*
14*345678*
15*345678*
16*345678*
17*345678*
18*345678*
19*345678*
20*345678*

Each line is 10 characters for a total of 200 characters (not
including paragraph breaks). So, I click OK and then close Word.
After restarting word and going back into the Options, where I should
get the same 200 characters, the following appears:

1*2345678*
2*2345678*
3*2345678*
4*2345678*
5*2345678*
6*2345678*
7*2345678*
8*2345678*
9*2345678*
10*345

Word has truncated the data in the field at about 96 characters. If I
add a paragraph break between the first and second lines, then restart
Word I will get the following:

1*2345678*

2*2345678*
3*2345678*
4*2345678*
5*2345678*
6*2345678*
7*2345678*
8*2345678*
9*2345678*
10*3

So Word appears to treat the paragraph break as two characters because
it removed the trailing "45" from the previous result.

If I remove all paragraph breaks from my number sequence like so:

1*2345678*2*2345678*3*2345678*4*2345678*5*2345678*6*2345678*7*2345678*8*2345678*9*2345678*10*345678*11*345678*12*345678*13*345678*14*345678*15*345678*16*345678*17*345678*18*345678*19*345678*20*345678*

The result is:

1*2345678*2*2345678*3*2345678*4*2345678*5*2345678*6*2345678*7*2345678*8*2345678*9*2345678*10*345678*11*345678*12*345678*13*345

Again Word has truncated the field, but to a total of 126 characters.

But wait, it gets more confusing ... on my collegues machine -- which
is identical hardware and running the same version of MSOFFICE 2003
sp3 -- she appears to have no limit on the number of characters in
this same field. She can copy the orginal 200 characters in, save,
close, restart and everything is fine -- no truncation.

Can anyone else confirm or explain what might be going on?

For now, until we know more, I am recommending that our staff use less
than 100 characters in the mailing address field so our template
letters work. Any other suggestions? We could use Autotext entries,
but then we need 100+ staff to define their autotext entry for name/
address AND have them use a standard autotext name which may initially
be a support nightmare.

Thanks for any help.

Colin

 

[CR Geissler]

Ok, so I am still looking into this. It appears to be a known issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214197 - Word may truncate user
information. Word is supposed to allow you 255 characters in the
mailing address field, but sometimes it only allows 126. As for its
status, "Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem"

Great. Thanks again Terry.

C

 

[Terry Farrell]

Thanks for finding that . The first I've heard of it. At least you know what
it is now.

Terry