versions 2000 vs. xp vs. 2003 macros

[eagletender]

1. Is Office 2003 set up the same was as previous versious regarding Tools,
Options, File Locations, Startup to put macros or templates in that you want
available to the user as soon as they open Word.

2. Will Office 2000 macros work in 2003? Usually this works but I don't
have 2003 to test it.

3. Most important question: How can I upgrade user's machines when I don't
know where their startup folder is? I'll be sending users the macros, but
not sure if they can figure out where to put them, or how to look where
their start up folder is. I don't see how I can run a macro to find this
information if I don't know where to put the macros in the first place. I
guess I could have them open a document with macros in it, would that work?
Then the document could copy the new macros to the proper place. Thanks!

 

[Tom Winter]

1. Is Office 2003 set up the same was as previous versious regarding Tools,
Options, File Locations, Startup to put macros or templates in that you want
available to the user as soon as they open Word.

2. Will Office 2000 macros work in 2003? Usually this works but I don't
have 2003 to test it.

3. Most important question: How can I upgrade user's machines when I don't
know where their startup folder is? I'll be sending users the macros, but
not sure if they can figure out where to put them, or how to look where
their start up folder is. I don't see how I can run a macro to find this
information if I don't know where to put the macros in the first place. I
guess I could have them open a document with macros in it, would that work?
Then the document could copy the new macros to the proper place. Thanks!

Check this out for working with multiple versions of Office:
INFO: Writing Automation Clients for Multiple Office Versions
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;244167

For distributing the template, here are two good articles. You can use the
ideas in the second one to distribute your template with some sort of setup
creator that can read registry keys. (Such as Inno Setup,
www.InnoSetup.com). Note that the registry key is different for each version
of Word. If possible, COM Add-Ins are much easier to deploy, since you don't
have to put them any where in particular, just register them wherever you
install them. (Your COM Add-In can then load a .DOT global add-in from its
own folder if you need.) And yes, you can have the user open a document with
macros which can then use VBA, etc., to install your template. But that's
kind of unprofessional.

(I believe there are versions of these articles for WD2002, 2003, etc.)

WD2000: How to Automatically Load or Distribute a VBA Project
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;292037&Product=wrd

WD2000: How to Find the Word Startup-Path by Using an External Solution
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;210860