Word files created from templates craching PC's

C

Chris P

I am having trouble with users opening a Word 2000
document and crashing their machines. The problem goes
like this

Users will create a Word document from an database (DB)
application using a template built into DB application.
The user will then sent those documents to the recipient
across the various states and branches. This was working
perfectly ok for 2 years however we decided to move to
Active Directory with our organisation.

The first sign of trouble can be seen in Melbourne one
day after their domain has been transferred to a new
Windows 2000 AD structure from NT4 Domain. We have since
moved to Windows 2003 AD and have migrated users from an
NT4 Domain to a the Windows 2003 AD infrastructure and
domain

None of the computers in the new AD domain can open the
documents, their PC's simply crash or hang. This only
happenes when a user is moved to the new AD domain
infrastructure and the domain changed on their computer.
This does not happen on other computers that remain on
the NT4 Domain.

If users send the Word document to an email account
outside the AD infrastructure, it will open fine. I can
even open the attachment on my home computer which is not
connected to either the NT4 or AD domains.

When doing some testing, we found out that it actually
not crashing the computer, it is just taking an awfully
long time to open document, lets say 25 - 30 minutes, and
it may eventually open the document.

The way these Template is setup is simply using an ODBC
connection from Oracle to MSWord 2000. After a user
creates the document, they will save it as a standalone
Word 2000 document which is independent from any macro or
connection to the database app - it is like copying and
pasting the text out from one document to a new fresh
one. For an unknown reason, it is trying to connect to
the data source when open within Word in the new AD
domain only and not any other domain.

I know this is a long winded explanation but I am hoping
that someone else may have seen this phenomena with
documents created this way.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
B

Beth Melton

Hi Chris,

It sounds like the documents are looking for the attached template.
The location of the attached template can be found under
Tools/Templates and Add-ins.

The reason the documents do not delay when not connected to the new
domain is because a) the template can be found or b) they are not
connected to a network and Word doesn't go looking for the template.

There is a fix for this issue for Word 2002/Windows XP but
unfortunately there is not one available for Word 2000.

However there are several workarounds you can try in this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=830561

--
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/
 

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