Forms

[Ray Dunn]

I made a form and protected it and it seems to be working fine. How can I
make sure that the end users do not overwrite this form after they have
filled in their information? I tried saving it as a template, but when it
is not in the template directory the users can overwrite the .dot file. All
I am doing now is setting the file properties on the desktop to read-only to
prevent users from overwriting the file. Any user however can just uncheck
that box if they know how. There must be a better way.
Thanks,
Ray

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Put it in the templates directory as a template. The correct way to use a
template is to create a new document based upon the file.

 

[Ray Dunn]

The problem with that is that I would have to travel to 250 computers and
place it into that folder. I emailed this form to 250 people within our
company to use. Most do not know where to find the template folder, nor do
most understand how to use templates.
There must be another way.
Thanks, Ray

 

[Beth Melton]

I utilize WinZip and its Self-Extractor for this purpose. If all of
the users have their User Templates folder set to the default then
it's just a matter of specifying the User Templates path for
self-extraction. Then all you need to do is instruct the user to click
"Unzip" and the rest of the work is done for them.

I have another WinZip utility that will launch a specific file
contained in the Zip file which is a Word document containing a macro
that finds the user's templates folder and extracts the template to
that location. It's like a small installer program.

You can use a Word document/template for a similar method as well.
It's fairly simple.

--
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Charles Kenyon]

If they are networked, there is something called the workgroup templates
folder. http://addbalance.com/usersguide/template.htm

That your users do not know how to use templates shows a weakness in your
training program that I'm afraid I'm unable to remedy from here. You can set
up a distribution method that puts a file into the workgroup templates
folder (whether on a network or local computer) fairly easily.