Weird Doc Open Error - Word 2004

[ggdenny]

I have created a set of documents based on a template. I just emailed a
few of the completed documents to a colleague who is using Word in
Windows, but she gets the following error message when trying to open
the docs:

"Could not open Garry: Applications: Microsoft
Office 2004: Templates: New Custom Sweep report.dot".

If she clicks okay, the doc will open. I sent the same docs to a friend
that also uses Word 2004, but he does not get the error message.

The error would certainly confuse/frustrate the end users for whom the
documents will ultimately be sent. Any ideas of what's wrong?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi gg,

The file extension .dot indicates a template, not a document; that would be
..doc. It sounds like you sent your colleague a set of templates rather than
documents.

You said your set of documents is based on a template. How did you create
these "documents"? The only way to create a document from a template is via
the Project Gallery. Is that how you did it? Because if you double-clicked
on the template thinking you'd get a document based on it, you were wrong:
you got a template.

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

[CyberTaz]

Just to expand on what Beth said - which is spot on - the reason the Windows
user gets that message is that .dot's in Windows behave differently. When
you double-click a .dot it creates a new file based on the template rather
than opening the template itself... In this case though it sounds like the
user may be double-clicking the *attachment* which doesn't really exist as a
file until saved to disk.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
..

 

[ggdenny]

Beth, Bob, John, et al,

Thanks so much for the thoughtful responses to my issue. The 24
documents in question were created using Project Gallery and a template
that I've been using (with modifications) for years. This is the only
time the end user has ever had the error message. So, I'm just not sure
what happened this time around to create the error. Considering that
the 24 documents have been created, but not yet complete and emailed is
there anything I can do at this juncture to somehow fix the problem?

 

[Jacques]

So, if I create a document which is attached to a template on my Mac,
and I send it to colleagues on a separate (PC) network, they will get an
error message when they try to open the document? What do I have to do
to avoid this? Will it be sufficient to uncheck Automatically Update
Document Styles before I save the document and send it?

 

[Beth Rosengard]

Hi Garry,

I don't know what happened either! Is the end user game for some
experimentation? Try this:

You say the template has been around for years with modifications. Maybe
it's become corrupt. So do a "Maggie" on it: Open the template directly
(from the Finder), turn on Show/Hide formatting, copy all but the very last
paragraph mark and paste into a new document window. Save it as a template
with a slightly different name from the original.

Open the two templates side by side and be sure there's nothing missing or
changed in the new template. Fix anything that needs fixing. Save and
close both.

Now open the Project Gallery and create a document from the new template.
Type some stuff in it and send it to the end user. Any error messages now?

--
***Please always reply to the newsgroup!***

Beth Rosengard
MacOffice MVP

Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html>
My Site: <http://www.bethrosengard.com>

 

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

Hi Jacques:

No.

Before sending the document, either attach Normal template or place the
template in a folder on the network visible to all users of the document,
then re-attach the template from there.

Unless you do something to explicitly force it, a document makes no further
reference to its template after it is created. So there is normally no need
to send the template, or even make it available on the network. The only
time you need the template is if you want to use macros in the template, or
automatically update styles on open.

You should never leave "Automatically update styles" enabled in any
document. It corrupts them (ask me, if you want an explanation).

The error message will occur whenever a user opens a file that has an
unavailable Attached Template. To fix this, attach your Normal template
before sending the document. The document will then pick up the user's
Normal template at the destination. Since it's not going to retrieve
anything from that template, that doesn't matter.

Hope this helps

So, if I create a document which is attached to a template on my Mac,
and I send it to colleagues on a separate (PC) network, they will get an
error message when they try to open the document? What do I have to do
to avoid this? Will it be sufficient to uncheck Automatically Update
Document Styles before I save the document and send 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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Jacques]

Thanks John, I will try and remember to do this when I email documents
to my colleagues languishing in XP hell.

Could you please explain why "Automatically Update Styles" corrupts
documents (or point me to an explanation)? I think I understand what
this option does, but I think I need it. I have about 30 documents, each
of which is a draft chapter of a book. I have attached a single document
template to each chapter. I want to be able to change the styles in the
template and have them automatically take effect in each chapter when I
next open it. So at present I have "Automatically Update Styles" enabled
in each chapter. Can I get the effect I want without using it?

Jacques

 

[Jacques]

Thanks John.

I'm not interested in getting the formatting right for publication --
that's my publisher's problem. I'm interested in being able to write
without distractions. I find it irritating and confusing if I see
different formats in different chapters.

This is particularly so in the case of headings. I use many heading
levels -- sometimes all 9! -- and I want each heading style to be
consistent across all chapters so that I know where I am if I see a
heading which is (say) bold, italic and dark blue. I don't have time to
define all the styles in each document individually, and, even if I did,
I'd probably have second thoughts about how best to define them when I
was halfway through.

Suppose I defined the heading styles (and others that don't involve
bullets or numbering) in the document template, but defined bullet and
numbering styles in each document without putting any corresponding
styles in the template? Could I then use Automatically Update Styles
safely?

Jacques

 

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

Hi Jacques:

I think there's a risk that in your attempts to get it perfect, you'll end
up getting it broken. {Sigh} I keep doing this too...

This is particularly so in the case of headings. I use many heading
levels -- sometimes all 9! -- and I want each heading style to be
consistent across all chapters so that I know where I am if I see a
heading which is (say) bold, italic and dark blue. I don't have time to
define all the styles in each document individually, and, even if I did,
I'd probably have second thoughts about how best to define them when I
was halfway through.

If I was your editor, I would return the manuscript to you untouched and ask
you to revisit your design structure. Readers cannot mentally process more
than four levels of heading. Putting more levels than that in simply
confuses readers and the book's usability goes down very fast.

Knock it back to four levels. Five if you count the Chapter Heading as one.

I know what's wrong: You're busy telling them how to make a watch and you
think "Oh, they'll need to know how to tell the time" so you jam that into
your narrative inline. Take the instructions for time-telling into a
chapter of their own. And take the description of the Greenwich meridian
out of the book

We're here to make money (at least, that's one of our aims...) Giving the
reader what they want improves your chances...

Suppose I defined the heading styles (and others that don't involve
bullets or numbering) in the document template, but defined bullet and
numbering styles in each document without putting any corresponding
styles in the template? Could I then use Automatically Update Styles
safely?

No. That mechanism will corrupt the document if you have bullets and
numbering in use, no matter how you define them or apply them.

Sorry: Microsoft screwed up "Automatically update styles on open". It's
broken. It's a bug. It's been broken since 1989. There's nothing you can
do about it.

The problem is that Microsoft's Word designers don't have the first clue how
professionals USE Word. They keep designing it around the flood tide of
user research data that pours into Microsoft from the Customer Experience
Improvement Program (bug reports and crash reports).

Unfortunately, this data does not represent busy professionals using Word
well. It comes entirely from people who haven't a clue how to use Word
failing to learn It's like designing Olympic racing swimming suits by
watching babies floundering in water-wings.

What you want to do is the way it should work. But if you don't turn it
off, you'll corrupt all your files and end up having to fix them.

Cheers

Jacques

--

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. Business Analyst, Consultant
Technical Writer.
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Jacques]

This is particularly so in the case of headings. I use many heading
levels -- sometimes all 9! -- and I want each heading style to be
consistent across all chapters so that I know where I am if I see a
heading which is (say) bold, italic and dark blue. I don't have time to
define all the styles in each document individually, and, even if I did,
I'd probably have second thoughts about how best to define them when I
was halfway through.

If I was your editor, I would return the manuscript to you untouched and ask
you to revisit your design structure. Readers cannot mentally process more
than four levels of heading. Putting more levels than that in simply
confuses readers and the book's usability goes down very fast.

Knock it back to four levels. Five if you count the Chapter Heading as one.

I know what's wrong: You're busy telling them how to make a watch and you
think "Oh, they'll need to know how to tell the time" so you jam that into
your narrative inline. Take the instructions for time-telling into a
chapter of their own. And take the description of the Greenwich meridian
out of the book

We're here to make money (at least, that's one of our aims...) Giving the
reader what they want improves your chances...[/QUOTE]

Different approaches suit different markets. I write law books. The
logical structure has to be very carefully thought out, and it needs to
be clear to the reader what that structure is. Obviously you don't
expect the reader to take in the whole structure all at once. But, if
s/he wants to know exactly how the point at page 150 relates to the
point at page 175, the hierarchy of headings should make it clear.

Incidentally my publishers' style manual shows how to present 10 levels
of heading (not counting the chapter heading). These are the biggest
legal publishers in the UK. They know what their readers want.

Besides, I sometimes include low-level headings for my own purposes (to
help me plan what I'm going to say) but delete them from the final text
if (when I see what I've said) I don't think the reader will find them
helpful.

No. That mechanism will corrupt the document if you have bullets and
numbering in use, no matter how you define them or apply them.

Sorry: Microsoft screwed up "Automatically update styles on open". It's
broken. It's a bug. It's been broken since 1989. There's nothing you can
do about it.

The problem is that Microsoft's Word designers don't have the first clue how
professionals USE Word. They keep designing it around the flood tide of
user research data that pours into Microsoft from the Customer Experience
Improvement Program (bug reports and crash reports).

Unfortunately, this data does not represent busy professionals using Word
well. It comes entirely from people who haven't a clue how to use Word
failing to learn It's like designing Olympic racing swimming suits by
watching babies floundering in water-wings.

What you want to do is the way it should work. But if you don't turn it
off, you'll corrupt all your files and end up having to fix them.

Blimey. I'm glad I asked.

But suppose I were to temporarily define my numbered-paragraph and
bullet styles so that they don't use numbering or bullets. Would it
*then* be safe to use Automatically Update Styles while I'm drafting? I
could redefine the styles with numbering and bullets when the text is
finished. How's that?

 

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

Hi Jacques:

"John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]" <[email protected]>
wrote:

Different approaches suit different markets. I write law books. The
logical structure has to be very carefully thought out, and it needs to
be clear to the reader what that structure is.

Obviously you don't
expect the reader to take in the whole structure all at once.

Yes. I do. That's my point

Incidentally my publishers' style manual shows how to present 10 levels
of heading (not counting the chapter heading). These are the biggest
legal publishers in the UK. They know what their readers want.

While these three are undoubtedly true, are you certain that they're
related?

But suppose I were to temporarily define my numbered-paragraph and
bullet styles so that they don't use numbering or bullets. Would it
*then* be safe to use Automatically Update Styles while I'm drafting? I
could redefine the styles with numbering and bullets when the text is
finished. How's that?

You _might_ get away with it.

The more often you change the styles, the more nervous you should be, and
the more resilient your backup strategy.

If the documents start crashing, save them as Web Pages, then re-open the
web pages and re-save as documents. That will fix them.

Note: Save as "Web Page" NOT "Web Page (filtered)". 'Filtered' removes the
information needed to re-construct the document .doc version.

Cheers

 

[Jacques]

Different approaches suit different markets. I write law books. The
logical structure has to be very carefully thought out, and it needs to
be clear to the reader what that structure is.

Yep < 5 levels = high sales. > 5 levels = "monitor height adjustment".
You don't *have* to believe me, many don't [/QUOTE]

My sales figures are fine, thanks. This is the only book in its field.
Everyone who needs a copy buys one. : )

Yes. I do. That's my point

But if the logical structure involves many divisions and subdivisions,
the author has to decide whether to reflect the whole of that structure
in the headings. The downside of doing so is that grasping how all the
headings interrelate will require a bit of effort on the part of the
reader. The downside of not doing so is that the reader will not be able
to grasp the whole structure even if s/he does make an effort. For this
kind of material, the latter is a far worse drawback than the former.
The book is aimed at people who earn serious money and need to
understand the material in as much depth as they, with my help, can
manage. Keeping it simple is OK for students, but not for professionals.

While these three are undoubtedly true, are you certain that they're
related?

I'm certain that these publishers conduct market research, and that, if
their research revealed any discontent among the legal profession with
complicated heading structures, they would ask their authors to keep it
simple!

You _might_ get away with it.

The more often you change the styles, the more nervous you should be, and
the more resilient your backup strategy.

If the documents start crashing, save them as Web Pages, then re-open the
web pages and re-save as documents. That will fix them.

Note: Save as "Web Page" NOT "Web Page (filtered)". 'Filtered' removes the
information needed to re-construct the document .doc version.

I feel lucky. I'll give it a try. Many thanks.