Word 2000 templates in Word 2007

[Rob TUC]

Hi
We've moved to Office 2007 and our old Word templates, specially authored
for 2000 users with our own macros, open fine, but the docs made with them
give us problems afterwards. We need some users still on 2000 to open these
docs but if we 'maintain compatibility' then some layout properties are lost.
If we save down then that's Ok but if the 2000 user makes changes the 2007
author then has problems re-opening (files get corrupted) and sometimes even
re-saving (error message: disc is full etc.). It would seem there is some
clash going on.

None of this happens with docs not built from the templates.

Would it help if I saved the old templates as .dotx or .dotm? (If so,
which?) There is a global template too - would I have to change that?

Any suggestions gratefully received. I don't want to re-author the templates
(we have a set af about 12 and they all have forms and pops up and reference
the global template).

Thanks Rob

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Rob,

The Office compatibility pack will let folks with Office 2000, XP/2002 and 2003 work with documents created from Office 2007, but it
doesn't recognize Office 2007 templates.

You're correct that using Word 97-2003 compatibility settings in Word 2007 (Word 2007 allows separate selection of the file format
(i.e. .doc vs .docM) and the Word 97-2003 compatibility settings) and using the compatibility settings will change some of the 2007
features back to their prior version counterparts, but can you be more specific with examples of how/where you see problems with
documents made from the older templates? (i.e. when switching between 2007 and 2000 users, or ???) You may be running into the
issue where Word 2003 doesn't know what to do with an attached template from Word 2007, in part due to the switch in 'location'
http://www.gmayor.com/Problems_opening_2007_docs.htm

Are you working on network stored documents? If so then in Word 2007, under
Office Button=>Word Options=>Advanced=>Save
turn on 'Copy remotely stored files onto your computer...'
There are also a couple of hotfixes that relate to issues on servers, if I recall correctly.

===========
Hi
We've moved to Office 2007 and our old Word templates, specially authored
for 2000 users with our own macros, open fine, but the docs made with them
give us problems afterwards. We need some users still on 2000 to open these
docs but if we 'maintain compatibility' then some layout properties are lost.
If we save down then that's Ok but if the 2000 user makes changes the 2007
author then has problems re-opening (files get corrupted) and sometimes even
re-saving (error message: disc is full etc.). It would seem there is some
clash going on.

None of this happens with docs not built from the templates.

Would it help if I saved the old templates as .dotx or .dotm? (If so,
which?) There is a global template too - would I have to change that?

Any suggestions gratefully received. I don't want to re-author the templates
(we have a set af about 12 and they all have forms and pops up and reference
the global template).

Thanks Rob <<
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Rob TUC]

Hi Bob
That's very useful - thanks. I will not resave our templates as .dotms at
the moment because as you say that will cause problems til we have all
migrated to 2007.

The current problem though is when a 2007 user makes a doc from one of our
templates and then saves down for a 2000 user to be able to amend. (We have
been saving down because our IT guy didn't get the conversion kits for 2000
users on our network). Then afterwards the 2007 author can't open it again.
But if we stay in .docx and 'maintain compatibility' is ticked that
re-opening problem doesn't happen, but instead we get layout changes when the
2000 user first opens it.

Will resaving the templates later (after the full migration) help solve all
that?

To answer your point about network stored docs that shouldn't be an issue as
the problem crops up even for laptop users running everything off their C
drives.

cheers
Rob