Workgroup Templates in Word 2004 for Mac

[John Lockwood]

We are in the process of upgrading everyone to Office 11.1.1 from Office
v.X.

We have a set of Word templates stored on our File Server so as to make them
available to everyone. With both Word v.X and Word 2004 I have gone to
Preferences, click on File Locations and specified that Workgroup Templates
are stored in a folder on our File Server.

With Word v.X if a user subsequently launched Word and they were not already
logged in to the File Server, Word would initiate a connection to the File
Server for you thus ensuring the templates were always available. This is
exactly what we wanted and it worked great.

With Word 2004 if a user is not already logged in to the File Server, Word
_DOES NOT_ initiate a connection to the File Server but continues to start
with the result that the templates are not available to the user in Project
Gallery. If a user logs in to the File Server before launching Word 2004
then the templates will be shown in Project Gallery.

This change in behaviour is highly undesirable.

I tried therefore to use the Send Feedback on Word option from the Help menu
but it appears Microsoft have 'enhanced the users experience' (i.e. they
have removed the feedback pages from their website).

Could anyone a) confirm this 'feature', and b) suggest an alternative way to
send feedback to Microsoft.

 

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

1) You just "sent" your feedback to Microsoft. The people who make Word
for the Mac are lurking constantly in here: that one will now be pinned to
the wall in Redmond...

2) I am not aware of a change to "Word" that would have done this. But I
am aware there have been several changes to Mac OS X that could have changed
this behaviour.

Word does not do any of its own file handling: it calls Mac OS X to do that
for it, in all cases. So Word will continue to make the call, if the OS is
not bringing the server up, there is a problem, but it's not in Word.

Here I have my Mac Laptop networked to my Windows XP PC. The connection is
not always up, but whenever I open a Word document with a template on the PC
the connection is automatically re-established.

I'm using the latest version of Word 2004 on the Mac.

Cheers

We are in the process of upgrading everyone to Office 11.1.1 from Office
v.X.

We have a set of Word templates stored on our File Server so as to make them
available to everyone. With both Word v.X and Word 2004 I have gone to
Preferences, click on File Locations and specified that Workgroup Templates
are stored in a folder on our File Server.

With Word v.X if a user subsequently launched Word and they were not already
logged in to the File Server, Word would initiate a connection to the File
Server for you thus ensuring the templates were always available. This is
exactly what we wanted and it worked great.

With Word 2004 if a user is not already logged in to the File Server, Word
_DOES NOT_ initiate a connection to the File Server but continues to start
with the result that the templates are not available to the user in Project
Gallery. If a user logs in to the File Server before launching Word 2004
then the templates will be shown in Project Gallery.

This change in behaviour is highly undesirable.

I tried therefore to use the Send Feedback on Word option from the Help menu
but it appears Microsoft have 'enhanced the users experience' (i.e. they
have removed the feedback pages from their website).

Could anyone a) confirm this 'feature', and b) suggest an alternative way to
send feedback to Microsoft.

--

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. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[John Lockwood]

2) I am not aware of a change to "Word" that would have done this. But I
am aware there have been several changes to Mac OS X that could have changed
this behaviour.

The reason I suspect Word 2004 rather than Mac OS X is that the only change
we made was moving to Office 2004. With Office v.X we were already running
the same Mac OS X 10.3 operating system. Therefore logically as the
operating system has not changed but Office has, Office would be the more
likely culprit.

Word does not do any of its own file handling: it calls Mac OS X to do that
for it, in all cases. So Word will continue to make the call, if the OS is
not bringing the server up, there is a problem, but it's not in Word.

Here I have my Mac Laptop networked to my Windows XP PC. The connection is
not always up, but whenever I open a Word document with a template on the PC
the connection is automatically re-established.

I was specifically referring to a situation where we have defined a location
for Workgroup Templates (each user is pointed to the same directory on the
Mac server which is accessed via AFP). Therefore when starting Word by
clicking on it in the Dock or Finder, not by opening a Word document, With
Word v.X the Project Gallery would show and because Word triggered a
connection the the File Server the Project Gallery includes the Workgroup
Templates on the File Server. With Word 2004 the Project Gallery still shows
but because it has not triggered a connection to the File Server it does not
include the Workgroup Templates.

If I do use an entry (of a document on the File Server) in Recent Files in
the File Menu of Office 2004 then that will cause a connection to the File
Server. If I had an alias (shortcut) of a document on my Desktop that is
pointing to a Word document on the File Server then that also would of
course connect to the File Server. It is only Workgroup Templates and the
Project Gallery that is a problem in Word 2004 (compared to Office v.X).

It would be useful if someone other than myself could try replicating this
in both Word v.X and Word 2004. Note: we do have single sign-on working for
our Mac logins and File Server. This means normally a user does not have to
re-enter their name and password to access the File Server.

 

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

I wish I could be more help.

I see Jeffrey Weston was here an hour or so ago. He's one of the software
testers working in Microsoft's Mac Business Unit making Word. Since Jeffrey
did not respond, he either didn't see your post or he's gone off to research
the issue for you.

Please check back tomorrow...

The reason I suspect Word 2004 rather than Mac OS X is that the only change
we made was moving to Office 2004. With Office v.X we were already running
the same Mac OS X 10.3 operating system. Therefore logically as the
operating system has not changed but Office has, Office would be the more
likely culprit.


I was specifically referring to a situation where we have defined a location
for Workgroup Templates (each user is pointed to the same directory on the
Mac server which is accessed via AFP). Therefore when starting Word by
clicking on it in the Dock or Finder, not by opening a Word document, With
Word v.X the Project Gallery would show and because Word triggered a
connection the the File Server the Project Gallery includes the Workgroup
Templates on the File Server. With Word 2004 the Project Gallery still shows
but because it has not triggered a connection to the File Server it does not
include the Workgroup Templates.

If I do use an entry (of a document on the File Server) in Recent Files in
the File Menu of Office 2004 then that will cause a connection to the File
Server. If I had an alias (shortcut) of a document on my Desktop that is
pointing to a Word document on the File Server then that also would of
course connect to the File Server. It is only Workgroup Templates and the
Project Gallery that is a problem in Word 2004 (compared to Office v.X).

It would be useful if someone other than myself could try replicating this
in both Word v.X and Word 2004. Note: we do have single sign-on working for
our Mac logins and File Server. This means normally a user does not have to
re-enter their name and password to access the File Server.

--

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. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Matt Centurión]

Hello John,

I see the behavior that you describe and we'll try to correct it in a
future version. As for now I suggest the following workarounds:

A) Ask the OS to mount the folder when the user logs in by adding the
network folder in the "Accounts" control panel for those users

B) If you don't use the "Startup" functionality in Word try setting the
location of "Startup" in the File locations section of the Prefs to the same
network folder you use for Workgroup templates. This will have the effect of
making sure the folder is mounted when the first document is created (which
unfortunately happens AFTER the Project Gallery is first dismissed, so you
won't see the templates until you dismiss it and bring it up again)

Are these Workarounds sufficient for your needs? Let us know if we can help
come up with other suggestions if these don't meet your criteria.

Matt Centurión
Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft

--
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[John Lockwood]

Hello John,

I see the behavior that you describe and we'll try to correct it in a
future version. As for now I suggest the following workarounds:

A) Ask the OS to mount the folder when the user logs in by adding the
network folder in the "Accounts" control panel for those users

B) If you don't use the "Startup" functionality in Word try setting the
location of "Startup" in the File locations section of the Prefs to the same
network folder you use for Workgroup templates. This will have the effect of
making sure the folder is mounted when the first document is created (which
unfortunately happens AFTER the Project Gallery is first dismissed, so you
won't see the templates until you dismiss it and bring it up again)

Are these Workarounds sufficient for your needs? Let us know if we can help
come up with other suggestions if these don't meet your criteria.

Matt Centurión
Macintosh Business Unit, Microsoft

I am glad to hear that you will try and correct this in a future version.

Of the two workarounds listed, choice 'a' works best and is one already used
by some of our users. However setting up this preference in Accounts is
beyond some users capabilities (I am sure you have met similar users
yourself).

Computer: Press any key to continue.
User: I don't have an 'any' key on my keyboard!

 

[Beth Rosengard]

ROFL!

Beth