Strip template location from 1000's of docs

[Ernie]

Can someone PLEASE help me? We have thousands of old 97
and up Word docs that have a URL in them for the template
location. The server doesn't exist anymore and even if it
did, no one wants to open all those docs to change the
template location. Can some one please tell me if there
is a way to run a vbscript or something against a
directory holding these files that can strip out the
template URL.
This happened before I got here but we now use mapped
drives to keep this from happening in the future.
Please, please, any help will be greatly appreciated.
Third party tools welcome also, if you know of any.

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

You should be able to do this pretty simply with the DSOFile object: See
http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/Q224/3/51.asp&NoWebContent=1
for more info.

Let me know if you need more help.
--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

Eric,
I need more help. I know very, very little about VBA. I
actually downloaded that file earlier but didn't know how
to use it. Should I not point it at my head or what.
Anyway, I have a script that works but it opens the file
first and it doesn't take near the amount of time as if I
just opened it as an individual document. 40 files takes
about 2.5 minutes across the LAN, if no "Read Only"
documents exist.
Would the DSOFile, require the doc to open or could it
change it without doing so. I just need the fastest way
with reporting. Also, what about files marked as "Read
Only" as my script will cause a "Save As" box to open. I
can cancel it and it go on and then let me know which
ones were repaired and which ones failed.

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated!!!!!

 

[Ernie]

Eris,

That last one was from me. Forgot to change the Name and
email.

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

Can I see your script? I spent an hour with DSOFile.dll and it seems that
..Template is a readonly property.


--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Beth Melton]

Perhaps this download will help you:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/macrosvba/DSOFile.htm

It contains a download for a template containing some examples of how
to utilize the DLL.
--
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/

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

Unfortunately, the Template property appears to be readonly from DSOFile.dll

--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Arie Heinrich]

Hi all and Cheers Beth and Eric,

Well I had the same issue on a big project we did for a bank and vba is not
enough because when you open the document it firsts looks for the path to
the
template, It does that for several times making the opening of one single
file a
tedious 10 minutes work. Multiply that by 1000 docs..and you'll leave your
computer working for hours or days.

The only 'speedy' solution to this is to build a simple computer (doesn't
have to
be a server) and just name it the same or create a DNS Alias for that name
and
point it to a new working station that has at least the share structure. It
doesn't
have to contain any of the old templates, unless its the new location for
the org
templates.

Word will look for the path, find it, will not find the template, then
revert to
Normal. This will take 0-10 seconds at most. At this point you can use any
vba
code you want to remap to the new template location, which should be a
mapped drive path and NOT a UNC path - \\server\share ...

As building DNS Aliases or building a working computer is not everyone's
hobby, ask your system administrator to assist you in this.

Take care,

Arie H.
MS MVP

 

[Ernie]

My script doesn't use the DSOFile.dll. It opens the file
first unlike the DFOFile, which if I read correctly,
changes things like an attribute setting with out opening
word.

 

[Beth Melton]

Cheers to you too Arie.

I agree. Another scenario is to run the macro on a workstation not
connected to the network. If there aren't any network drives to check
then the document opens quickly.

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

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

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

Yes, but after opening the file, what does your script do next?

--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Arie Heinrich]

Indeed, if you are a home user :

Generally speaking enterprise users keep their documents in a central locatio
or on thier home folders, which would be a prboblem to get access to, once th
network cable is gone :

But we can even outsmart that, if you collect ALL the documents to one plac
(prepare enough Disk space)
and then disconnect the network (you can just disable the network connection
no need to physically disconnect the cable)

BTW, if you still have docuemnts that map their template to a server that still exists
then prior to updating the office on the station to a new version of Offic
and if you have the office 97 OSR2 installed, and if i remember correctly, there is a registr
key that can be added that forces word to save the mapped drive letter and not the UNC path
the cons in this is that you have to manually (or via vba code) open and save each document...

I think the ealier options mentioned in the thread are better :

Cheers all

Oh..offtopic..Beth, will you and Susan and the rest of the gang be coming to the summit this year

Arie H
MS MV

 

[Beth Melton]

Good point Arie. I wasn't considering documents stored on the server.


--
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/

Indeed, if you are a home user

Generally speaking enterprise users keep their documents in a central location
or on thier home folders, which would be a prboblem to get access to, once the
network cable is gone

But we can even outsmart that, if you collect ALL the documents to one place
(prepare enough Disk space)
and then disconnect the network (you can just disable the network connection,
no need to physically disconnect the cable).

BTW, if you still have docuemnts that map their template to a server that still exists,
then prior to updating the office on the station to a new version of Office
and if you have the office 97 OSR2 installed, and if i remember correctly, there is a registry
key that can be added that forces word to save the mapped drive letter and not the UNC path.
the cons in this is that you have to manually (or via vba code) open and save each document....

I think the ealier options mentioned in the thread are better

Cheers all.

Oh..offtopic..Beth, will you and Susan and the rest of the gang be

coming to the summit this year ?