All:
Yeah, well now I am a bit mystified, dazed, and confused, because when I
tested by double-clicking a template in a folder other than "My Templates"
and with Word 2004 running, I too got it open as a Template, with its macros
remaining intact.
When I made a change and saved, the template saved without any problem.
But the behaviour reported by the Soon to be Overpaid One are exactly what I
would expect, and exactly what Word 2004 used to do. So I suspect there's
something strange happening on a machine that has both versions installed.
Now: to the original poster (What IS your name??):
The most important thing I can tell you is that you urgently need to locate
a PC with a copy of the correct version of Word on it that you can use. It
is possible (almost certain!) that we will not be able to solve all your
problems within the six days you have left!
I suggest that you abandon the "Automatically update styles on open" route
for those documents. It imposes a high level of stress on the application
at a very busy time (opening the document) and it is likely to lead to
crashes.
Instead:
1) Get the styles right in your template.
2) Open each document.
3) Attach the template.
4) Turn ON "Automatically update styles on open"
5) Immediately, turn OFF "Automatically update styles on open"
6) Save and close the document.
Do this to each of the other documents, one by one. When you switch
"Automatically update" on, Word will overwrite all the styles in the
document with the styles in the template. Then switch that setting off
again to reduce the crashes. You will still get lots of crashes in Mac
Word, but the cause won't be 'that'
Chances are, most of your crashes are coming from your footnotes. You don't
mention whether you are running EndNote. But it is a major problem, and
corrupt footnotes are so common in Mac Word that it's the first thing we
look for.
Finding corrupt footnotes is a chore: get back to us if you want the
procedure. But my strong advice would be that if you have any more problems
with those documents, you find one of those horrid PC-thingies to complete
your Thesis on. Get the thing submitted, and then we can help you ease
gently into a life of blissful Mac ownership
Sadly one of the more important lessons that comes your way on the road to
becoming a PhD-qualified Senior Executive is the need for planning and
testing
Changing "Platform" AND "Mission-critical application" seven days out from a
deadline is Medal-of-Honour/Victoria-Cross-level bravery. Always remember
that "There are Old pilots and Bold pilots, but there are no Old, Bold
pilots." The bold ones all crashed...
Having made you feel really bad, I should hasten to add that the reason I
consider this lesson in life so important is because I have done it too...
I would be delighted if this enabled you to ensure that you never do this
again, for your entire career! It would be good if I could learn the lesson
too!
The reason it wants to save "Document 8" is because you still have the blank
document open from the time you started Word. When you save a template,
Word should prompt you to save the document also. That's because while
working on a document, you may make changes to its template (for example,
you may change a style definition). These changes get stacked up as queued
writes to the template, but they need to be completed before the template
saves so they can be merged into the template.
The prompt to "Disable macros" does not necessarily refer to "macros".
This is another example of appalling Microsoft software design: the "Macro
Protection" in Word has never been updated since it was slapped in at the
last minute in the days when the "Word Prank Macro" was annoying everyone
That is: Long before the substantial attack applications, coded by the best
and brightest in large nation-states to steal secrets or money from each
other, appeared on the web.
Word's macro protection is now of so little use you might consider turning
it off, since it offers practically zero protection and a great deal of
annoyance. Run a commercial-grade anti-virus, anti-malware system and you
will be a lot safer. Or run ClamX, the free-ware one. Anything is better
than Word's...
The prompt in Word simply looks for the "Customisation Container". A Word
document or template is a collection of "containers", like the pigeon-holes
you used to see in the mail room. One of those containers can contain
Customisations", and within it can be containers for "Toolbars", "Keyboard
customisations", and "Macro Projects".
The prompt simply warns you if the "Container" exists: it does not look
inside the container to see if any "Macros" actually exist. So half the
time, it's talking out of its bum and you can afford to ignore it!
Sadly, it is also quite possible that by the time you respond to the dialog
box, whatever was in there has retrieved all your passwords and bank account
details and sent them all to Russia...
Install a proper anti-malware application, then turn the thing off
Hope this helps
Guess what John... I almost replied with similar content but with it
half-written decided to give it the old college try one more time.
Since I have both 04/08 installed I launched 04 then navigated to a template
in Finder & dbl-clicked it. The template opened as a template, not as a doc.
The difference in my case is that I was able to make changes & save to the
template without any difficulty... And Yes, I just did it again to prove it
wasn't a fluke
In fact, I even opened other templates from other folders
just to make sure I wasn't imagining it & in every case the template
actually opened without generating a new doc
Needless to say I was a bit mystified, dazed & confused so I promptly
trashed the reply I had written. Apparently I'm not the only one who hadn't
previously received the memo on this -- any insights???
Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here:
http://www.word.mvps.org/
Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:
[email protected]