Using Office 2007 templates in (Word .dotm .dotx) with older versi

[Illya Teideman]

I've seen a few threads here and there on this issue but not specifically the
big issue I need to know about. I'll reiterate some of the info in other
threads below for ease of reading appologies for not keeping it brief.

Question 1: If I create a new TEMPLATE in Word 2007 and use the new file
extensions .dotx or .dotm, should I expect to be able to use that template on
older versions of Word (2003, XP / 2002) on PC's that have the compatibility
pack installed without any problems?

Question 2: If I create a DOCUMENT which is BASED on a .dotx or .dotm
template in Word 2007 (i.e. it is listed as an attached template) and share
it with a colleage who has an older version of Word (2003 or XP) on PC's that
have the compatibility pack installed will the file open without any
problems?

In answer to the above questions I believe the compatibility pack IS NOT
compatible with .dotx and .dotm template file formats. As Word 2007 document
formats are supported I would expect a .doc created in Word 2007 to work
under all circumstances... Please correct me if I am wrong.

In my experience, when you open a template directly you get this error:

File Conversion - <<Name of attached template>> .dotm or .dotx

Select the encoding that makes your document readable.
Text encoding:
<<Radio Btn>> Windows Default
<<Radio Btn>> MS_DOS
<<Radio Btn>> Other encoding
<<OPTIONS BOX for other encoding>>
Preview:
<<Large ugly preview box containing mostly squares and [Content_Types].xml>>
[OK][Cancel] <<Option boxes>>

See the following link for an example image (Correct at time of writing,
thanks Graham): http://gmayor.com/Images_2007/Proble3.jpg

THE BIG ISSUE: I'm not too worried about not being able to open an Office
2007 template directly in an older version. What does concern me is the same
message box appears when you open a .doc .docx or a .docm (All supported file
types) that have a .dotx or dotm template attached to them.

It's worth noting... When you click okay or cancel when opening the template
directly you get a document with junk in it. When you click okay or cancel
when opening the document with an attached template the document DOES open
and looks okay. This is however not acceptable, users and external recipients
have to deal with the message everytime the file is opened.

If this is correct (I am still hoping I'm wrong on all counts) how are other
people / companies dealing with the issue?

1. Only using old style .dot templates
2. Removing the association to the .dotm and .dotx style template before
distributing the documents
3. Not sharing documents based on .dotm and .dotx templates outside of the
Office 2007 environment
4. Something else... (Please let there be something else!)

The company I am working for are planning on being able to share documents
between Word 2007 and Word XP for some time to come both internally and
externally. At the moment our only real option is not to use the new file
formats for templates... Hope you have some useful advice!

Additional Info:

SOURCE: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074/en-us

SOURCE: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Applications/Q_23345550.html

SOURCE: Graham Mayor MVP site:
http://gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm

With reference to the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel,
and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats"
Downloadable here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com]

I would suggest that the safest thing to do with templates that are
developed in Word 2007 would be to save them as Word 97-2003 templates, if
there is any chance of a document being created from those templates being
opened in an earlier version or if the templates are to be used with an
earlier version.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

I've seen a few threads here and there on this issue but not specifically
the
big issue I need to know about. I'll reiterate some of the info in other
threads below for ease of reading appologies for not keeping it brief.

Question 1: If I create a new TEMPLATE in Word 2007 and use the new file
extensions .dotx or .dotm, should I expect to be able to use that template
on
older versions of Word (2003, XP / 2002) on PC's that have the
compatibility
pack installed without any problems?

Question 2: If I create a DOCUMENT which is BASED on a .dotx or .dotm
template in Word 2007 (i.e. it is listed as an attached template) and
share
it with a colleage who has an older version of Word (2003 or XP) on PC's
that
have the compatibility pack installed will the file open without any
problems?

In answer to the above questions I believe the compatibility pack IS NOT
compatible with .dotx and .dotm template file formats. As Word 2007
document
formats are supported I would expect a .doc created in Word 2007 to work
under all circumstances... Please correct me if I am wrong.

In my experience, when you open a template directly you get this error:

File Conversion - <<Name of attached template>> .dotm or .dotx

Select the encoding that makes your document readable.
Text encoding:
<<Radio Btn>> Windows Default
<<Radio Btn>> MS_DOS
<<Radio Btn>> Other encoding
<<OPTIONS BOX for other encoding>>
Preview:
<<Large ugly preview box containing mostly squares and
[Content_Types].xml>>
[OK][Cancel] <<Option boxes>>

See the following link for an example image (Correct at time of writing,
thanks Graham): http://gmayor.com/Images_2007/Proble3.jpg

THE BIG ISSUE: I'm not too worried about not being able to open an Office
2007 template directly in an older version. What does concern me is the
same
message box appears when you open a .doc .docx or a .docm (All supported
file
types) that have a .dotx or dotm template attached to them.

It's worth noting... When you click okay or cancel when opening the
template
directly you get a document with junk in it. When you click okay or cancel
when opening the document with an attached template the document DOES open
and looks okay. This is however not acceptable, users and external
recipients
have to deal with the message everytime the file is opened.

If this is correct (I am still hoping I'm wrong on all counts) how are
other
people / companies dealing with the issue?

1. Only using old style .dot templates
2. Removing the association to the .dotm and .dotx style template before
distributing the documents
3. Not sharing documents based on .dotm and .dotx templates outside of the
Office 2007 environment
4. Something else... (Please let there be something else!)

The company I am working for are planning on being able to share documents
between Word 2007 and Word XP for some time to come both internally and
externally. At the moment our only real option is not to use the new file
formats for templates... Hope you have some useful advice!

Additional Info:

SOURCE: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074/en-us

SOURCE:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Applications/Q_23345550.html

SOURCE: Graham Mayor MVP site:
http://gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm

With reference to the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word,
Excel,
and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats"
Downloadable here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en

 

[Illya Teideman]

Many thanks for replying Doug. I was expecting that answer but hoping for a
different one. I can't imagine anyone could safely say a document will only
be used in Word 2007 throughout it's entire life so it seems the only
sensible choice.

Is this really the approach taken by everyone using Word 2007 at the moment?
We have not had that advice from Microsoft, is that the official line? I
wonder if you have any references to technical articles I might have missed?
It seems very off message if that is the case. We want a good solid core of
XML templates embracing all the great new functionality in Office 2007 but it
is not an option if we ever want to share documents outside of our immediate
environment.

One additional related question, if a template is not used to create a
document the document has Normal.dotm attached, this doesn't cause any
problems and yet normal.dotm is a new style template with the same extension,
I can't explain it logically... do you have an explanation for this?

RE: Using Office 2007 templates in (Word .dotm .dotx) with older versions of
Word

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP on news.microsoft.com]

If a document is opened on a machine on which the template that was used to
create the documnet is not present, the normal.dot (or in the case of Word
2007, the normal.dotm) template that is on that machine will be attached to
the document.

There is always a normal.dot (or in the case of Word 2007 a normal.dotm)
template if Word is opened for if you delete it, Word will automatically
re-create it with the default settings.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Illya Teideman]

Thanks Doug, so if a user on Word 2007 creates a document it attaches the
local normal.dotm from their profile. When a user on Word XP opens that
document which says it has normal.dotm attached it can't find normal.dotm in
the other users profile so it looks locally, doesn't have a normal.dotm but
attaches normal.dot instead and opens successfully...

If that works shouldn't other templates that cannot be located work as well?
For example if a user on Word 2007 creates a document based on an office 2007
template in their shared template location it attaches the local <path to
network location>\Letter.dotm to the document. When a user on Word XP who
cannot see that network location opens that document shouldn't it look
locally and just attach the local normal.dot instead and again open
successfully?

That would make this much less of a problem, i.e. the only people who would
have the problem are the ones on Word XP who can see the Word 2007 template.
For a mixed environment as long as the Word 2007 templates were kept in a
seperate location to the Word XP templates and the Word XP users did not have
permissions to see the Word 2007 templates everything should work just
fine... As far as I know that is not the case but I will go and do some
thorough testing to make sure.

I still need to know if "Do not use .dotx or .dotm templates if you intend
to share documents outside of the office 2007 environment"
is the official line from Microsoft if you or anyone else has any references
to technical articles it would be greatly appreceated.

Again this seems off message from Microsoft, we are told XML is the future
and yet will have to rely on the old file formats for the forseeable future
as the basis for all documents. What functionality if any do we really lose
if we stay with the old file formats for templates bareing in mind that the
you can still use all of the new functionality in Office 2007 after the
document has been initially created and save the resulting document in .docx
or .docm format with no problems?


RE: Using Office 2007 templates in (Word .dotm .dotx) with older versions
of Word

 

[Illya Teideman]

Done some testing, no surprises it doesn't matter if the user opening the
document can see the template or not the same issue occurs even if there is a
local .dot version of the template in the templates folder.