Workgroup templates and startup

[Bear]

Forgive me for posting this in two spots. I had second thoughts about putting
it in the general questions area, since it's rather technical question.
Here's what I'm wondering, with some additions...

We're thinking of using the Workgroup Templates feature of Word 2000. The
only downside I've read about is the users' inability to work offline. It
there are other caveats, please tell me.

What I'm specifically interested about is how Workgroup templates interact
with User templates. I.E. if identical templates are located on both the
Workgroup and User Template paths, which has predominance?

In addition, how does one handle global add-ins in a "workgroup" fashion?
Point the Tools directory to a shared folder as well?

Bear

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Bear

Forgive me for posting this in two spots. I had second thoughts about
putting
it in the general questions area, since it's rather technical question.

Please go back to that other place, wherever that is, and let people there
know that the question is being dealt with here. That might save some people
some time.

inability to work offline.

Only if the Workgroup Templates folder is pointed to a folder that is
inaccessible when offline.

if identical templates are located on both the
Workgroup and User Template paths, which has predominance? UserTemplates

how does one handle global add-ins in a "workgroup" fashion?

If you need users to work off line, then create a script that runs at
network login time that downloads the addin to the user's Word Startup
folder if the addin file has been changed.

Point the Tools directory to a shared folder as well?

The Tools directory serves the same function as a man's tie: it takes up
space, looks nice and serves no function.

Seriously, the Tools folder serves no function at all.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Bear]

Shauna:

Thanks for your input. (I have gone back and added a note to my original
post, as you suggested.)

I understand all you've said, but I asked the wrong question. I should have
asked about changing the Startup path to a LAN directory. Is that a
reasonable way to get "workgroup" add-ins?

Bear

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi

What you suggest will work, but these days it's not much recommended. The
recommended approach is a copy for everyone in their own Startup folder on
the local machine, with the file updated with a script on login. You can
just use XCopy in the script.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Bear]

Thanks!

Bear

 

[Chip Orange]

Bear,

One other issue is that these templates can be in use constantly, making
updating of them problematic.

You may have to do it at a time when everyone is off-line; if they leave
their pcs on over-night, in Word, they can be tied up all the time!

Never-the-less, we do this in a relatively large organization of 300 people,
and we copy down global add-ins as Shauna suggests, and it all works pretty
well.


Chip

 

[Bear]

Chip and Shauna:

I'm running my machine this way now:

User Templates = LAN folder\Templates
Workgroup Templates = blank
Startup = LAN folder\Startup

All the LAN folders and templates are set to Read Only in Windows.

I left my original user templates where they were, so there's no contention
between workgroup and user templates, but I can work offline by changing the
setting for User Templates (and Startup).

This is clearly not as good as the login script and pushing files by date,
as there's no certainty how up-to-date anything on my local machine will ever
be. Also, I have yet to test it with multiple users. But so far it seems to
work okay.

Bear

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Bear

User Templates = LAN folder\Templates

Does this mean
(1) each person is pointing to the same Templates folder? Or
(2) each person has (eg) an H:\ drive and we each have our own (eg)
H:\Templates folder?

(1) is a disaster waiting to happen. That's because Word puts Normal.dot in
that folder and you cannot share normal.dot files.
See
You cannot share the Normal.dot file among multiple users in Word
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811468

Furthermore, this configuration also means that no user can ever save a
time-saving keyboard shortcut or an AutoText or create their own template or
do anything much that distinguishes Word from an IBM Selectric typewriter,
except that the IBM Selectric typewriter had a better keyboard<g>.


(2) will work, but you can't work off line.

However, in this configuration, if you start Word, without being connected
to the network, then Word won't be able to find (eg) H:\. So Word does what
Word always does: it improvises. Specifically, it will re-set the User
Templates and Startup folders to their defaults on the C:\ drive.

Now, what happens when I come back from Starbucks, plug the machine in to
the network and start Word? Word will *not* magically remember that I used
to have User Templates and the Startup folder on the H:\ drive. At this time
they are set to C:\ and they'll stay there.

So (2) is fine, as long as you *never* work off line.


For what it's worth, most configurations these days have to cope with
desktop, laptop and remote (eg Citrix Metaframe) access. The best solution
I've found is described here:
http://groups.google.com.au/group/m..._frm/thread/9e1a993975d8a9a5/9d6a14996b57453a


Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Bear]

Shauna:

You're correct about my scheme being unworkable. I hadn't thought the
Normal.dot problem through.

I wouldn't have encountered the second problem (Word not remembering the LAN
paths after working offline) until we'd had a disaster.

So, once again I'm indebted to you.

It looks very much like a login script is really the only workable solution.

Bear