Content library

M

Mike Williams

Is there a way to copy the entire contents of my Content Library to another
computer.
I have managed a work around by copy/paste but I wondered if there was an
easier method.
 
M

Mary Sauer

Did you try copying the files to a removable disk? If you copy the files this
way, be certain you also copy the .cspub files.
 
M

Maureen

Hi Mary

Thank you for your very quick response. I had not copied the .cspub files.
It has taken me a long time to suss out where I was originally going wrong.
However, I did as you you suggested and then I came across a problem. I
managed to copy the entire Content Library folder (including the .cspub
files) to my Lap Top so that it replaced the Lap Top's existing Contents
Library folder and it copied fine. However, I came across a problem when I
ran Publisher on the Lap Top and it complained about a lot of images being
corrupt. I then found the only images that appeared to be handled correctly
were those whose file names (in the Content Library folder) did not have any
of the letters b, c, p, s or u in their names. All Content Library file
names where the files did contain such a character would not work and
Publisher came up with a "corrupt file" message.

I then went back to my main computer and checked the Content Library folder
and sure enough all .jpg and .cspub files in that folder had all of the
characters b, c, p, s or u missing, with a space character in its place! I
thought at first that this might be some sort of random corruption due to a
bug, but on looking again at this problem it appears to be deliberately done
by the powers that be, otherwise if it was a simple bug I think the missing
letters in the file names in the Contents Library Folder would have been
random whereas in fact any character that appears in the extension "cspub"
gets ommitted from the filename in both the .jpg and the .cspub files in the
Content Library folder. For example, if I insert a jpg image into a
Publisher document in the normal way and then right click it and select Add
to Content Library and then give it the name:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwzyz

.. . . and then go to c:\users\<my user
name>\appdata\local\microsoft\publisher and open up the Content Library
folder I can see the file names:

a defghijklmno qr t vwzyz.jpg
a defghijklmno qr t vwzyz.cspub

Similarly, if I named a picture hopscotch I would see the following files in
the Content Library folder:

ho ot h.jpg
ho ot h.cspub

The names in the content library box against the thumbnails in Publisher
itself are correct, so presumably the correct name is stored in the .cspub
file along with the data of the original full size jpg, but the file names
in the Content Library folder are corrupt.

This happens on both of my machines, a desktop running Vista Home Premium
with Publisher 2007 and a laptop running Vista Business with Publisher 2007.
Does anyone else have this problem? Time consuming but I am determined to
get there in the end.

Frustrating stuff, this!

MoMo (Maureen)
 
M

Mary Sauer

Hello Maureen,
I have the same problem, I just never noticed it before. If I rename the files
in the Content Library folder, Publisher queries "Publisher has found 1 new
items in your Content Library folder. Do you want to add these items to the
Content Library?"

The next screen comes up "Unable to add hoe (this file was named shoe) to the
Content Library.This file may have been corrupted, or may be of an unsupported
file type. Only files that come from another Content Library in Publisher can be
added to the Content Library. Do you want to delete this file?" The thing is I
did rename both files to shoe but the query is looking for (space)hoe.

If I press *no* the file is there but blank and nothing happens if I select it.

I have a file called "Ln Star.jpg" in the Library, the "s" is present but it is
listed as "Ln Star j g.jpg."

As you say, it is frustrating. I will report this to the Publisher folks. It is
so strange that certain letters are ommited.

Mary
 
M

Maureen

Hi Mary

Thank you for that. I wasn't sure if I was expressing things clearly. When I
read your email I noticed that in your own file called "Ln Star.jpg" in the
Library, where the "s" is present it is listed as "Ln Star j g.jpg." your
"s" was a capital letter! I have just renamed one of my pictures using all
capitals from A through Z and looking at the result in the Content Library
folder all characters in that name are fine. So it looks like the problem
only exists for lower case characters. Using upper case in my image names in
future makes a very good workaround for me for the time being. I can now get
on with copying my Content Library to my Lap Top. Once again thank you in
the first place for introducing me to "Content Library" and your subsequent
help. I would appreciate it if you would let me know if Microsoft do
eventually get back to you.

MoMo (Maureen)
 
M

Maureen

Hi Mary

Eureka! Workaround does work! I have changed the names of all images in my
Content Library in the Publisher task pane so they all have Uppercase
characters. I was then able to copy the Content Library folder onto a memory
stick and transfer it from there to another computer to completely replace
the existing Contents Library folder on that machine. I ended up with
exactly the same contents on both machines which is precisely what I wanted!
I am really pleased about that : - ) If I hadn't have noticed your capital
"S" in your response I would never have thought of going down that road.
Thank you.

MoMo (Maureen)
 
M

Mary Sauer

Hey Maureen, This is good to know. We don't get many Content questions here. I
had an Access MVP query about sharing the Library on a network, but he never
mentioned any problems.

I'll post this Monday to the Microsoft guru.

Thanks for your feedback, Maureen. I appreciate it.
 

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