remove old unc path

[Mikhail Zuskov]

Situation:
We've removed an old file server a few month ago. Now, when we've deployed a
number of WinXP systems with Office 2003 on it, we've discovered that opening
of some documents can lasts up to 20 minutes. After some debugging i've
discovered that these documents contain link to template on the non-existing
file server.
If i got to tools->templates i see this pach standing in Attach line. If i
clear it and save the document, the problem with that document is solved.
BUT, I've got thusends of these documents and doing this manually for all of
them looks like suicide to me.

The question is how can i automatically remove this UNC path from all the
documents?
if i run for example this script i don't see the bad template
Sub test()
Count = 1
For Each aTemplate In Templates
MsgBox aTemplate.Name & " is template number " & Count
Count = Count + 1
Next aTemplate

End Sub

 

[Jonathan West]

Situation:
We've removed an old file server a few month ago. Now, when we've deployed
a
number of WinXP systems with Office 2003 on it, we've discovered that
opening
of some documents can lasts up to 20 minutes. After some debugging i've
discovered that these documents contain link to template on the
non-existing
file server.
If i got to tools->templates i see this pach standing in Attach line. If i
clear it and save the document, the problem with that document is solved.
BUT, I've got thusends of these documents and doing this manually for all
of
them looks like suicide to me.

The question is how can i automatically remove this UNC path from all the
documents?
if i run for example this script i don't see the bad template
Sub test()
Count = 1
For Each aTemplate In Templates
MsgBox aTemplate.Name & " is template number " & Count
Count = Count + 1
Next aTemplate

End Sub

First, you need to obtain and install a hotfix to clear the bug.

Then you need to sort out the documents and change the attached template.
the following Microsoft knowledge base articles will help

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830561/en-us?spid=2530&sid=49
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823372/

Then, you need to reorganise your template management so that all templates
are stored on individual users' local drives.


--
Regards
Jonathan West - Word MVP
www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk
Please reply to the newsgroup
Keep your VBA code safe, sign the ClassicVB petition www.classicvb.org

 

[Mikhail Zuskov]

Jonathan,

Thank you,
That is what i've been looking for.

Then, you need to reorganise your template management so that all templates
are stored on individual users' local drives.

Allowing users to keep the templates on their local disks is not an option
for us. We've got more 2000 staff mebers +temps etc, so the Workgroup
templates must be somwhere in a central place. But we'll rearrange it soon to
be server independent...

Regards,
Mikhail

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Mikhail Zuskov was telling us:
Mikhail Zuskov nous racontait que :

Jonathan,

Thank you,
That is what i've been looking for.

Allowing users to keep the templates on their local disks is not an
option for us. We've got more 2000 staff mebers +temps etc, so the
Workgroup templates must be somwhere in a central place. But we'll
rearrange it soon to be server independent...

All you need is a small script that executes together with other log- in
scripts. When a user logs-in to the network, the script checks to make sure
that his/her templates are up to date, if not, new ones are downloaded unto
the local drive.

This avoids problems such as the one you experienced.
It also decreases network traffic.
If the server is down, Word processing will not be affected.
Etc.


--

Salut!
_______________________________________
Jean-Guy Marcil - Word MVP
(e-mail address removed)
Word MVP site: http://www.word.mvps.org

 

[Jonathan West]

Jonathan,

Thank you,
That is what i've been looking for.

Allowing users to keep the templates on their local disks is not an option
for us. We've got more 2000 staff mebers +temps etc, so the Workgroup
templates must be somwhere in a central place. But we'll rearrange it soon
to
be server independent...

I wonder whether you send documents outside your own organisation? If you
do, and they have a UNC path to the attached template, the document will
still take several minutes to open even though you have installed the hotfix
on all your computers.

This will apply even if you map a drive letter to the network path. It is
stored internally within the document as a UNC path.

Only if the templates is stored on a local drive does this problem not
occur.

I've written on this subject before in these groups. There are several very
good reasons not to have shared workgroup templates on a network file
server. Go to Google Groups and search on my name and "network template" and
you'll come across those posts.

I do templates for a living, and my templates have been installed into
companies with a lot more than 2,000 seats. It is perfectly possible to do
provided you get the infrastructure set up right. Your IT department should
be able to help with this. It is after all their job to make sure that the
company's IT operations run smoothly and for the benefit of the company.


--
Regards
Jonathan West - Word MVP
www.intelligentdocuments.co.uk
Please reply to the newsgroup
Keep your VBA code safe, sign the ClassicVB petition www.classicvb.org

 

[Michael Bednarek]

Situation:
We've removed an old file server a few month ago. Now, when we've deployed a
number of WinXP systems with Office 2003 on it, we've discovered that opening
of some documents can lasts up to 20 minutes. After some debugging i've
discovered that these documents contain link to template on the non-existing
file server.
If i got to tools->templates i see this pach standing in Attach line. If i
clear it and save the document, the problem with that document is solved.
BUT, I've got thusends of these documents and doing this manually for all of
them looks like suicide to me.

[snip]

We had exactly the same situation a few days ago. I mitigated the effect
by creating a "cheating" entry in the local DNS server which pointed the
old server's name to the IP address of an existing server. Apparently,
it doesn't take long for Microsoft Word to determine that a template
doesn't exist and to continue; searching for a non-existing server seems
to take much longer.

The proper solution would be, as Jonathan West suggested, to obtain the
fix described in <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823372/>.