Re: Easy way to convert templates to documents?

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Peter,

John's right. There's a bug in AppleScript that doesn't allow it to be done
the way it should,

It can still be done the old pre-2004 way using 'do Visual Basic', though,
thanks to a macro John produced. The AppleScript wrapping will still allow a
bunch of selected .dot files to be dropped on an applet - or a command to
find every .dot file in a folder and work on those. Which of those methods
is better for your users?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.


> From: Peter Bako <peter.bako@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
> Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 16:21:23 -0700
> Subject: Re: Easy way to convert templates to documents?
>
> Thanks Paul. I knew that just renaming the file to a different extension is
> a bad idea, heck that doesn't even work on a PC much less a Mac. There are
> distinct file format differences between a plain .doc file and a .dot file.
>
> I'm still trying to learn AppleScript, so I am nowhere near to writing a
> script of this caliber, but if you could find one that I can use as a basis,
> that would be great!!!
>
> Peter
>
> "Paul Berkowitz" <berkowit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:BE7D3507.927D6%berkowit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> It would not be a good idea AT ALL to change the extension of a .dot
>> template to ".doc". Since the structure of the file is a .dot template.
>> you
>> would be screwing things up so badly that probably nothing much would ever
>> work right again. This is a really,. really bad faux pas you've just
>> recommended, CyberTaz, as I'm sure you'll agree if you think about it for
>> a
>> minute.
>>
>> There probably is a safe way of automating the process of creating
>> documents
>> from the templates, then deleting the templates, by script, but the only
>> safe way of doing it manually is the way Peter has been doing it: move all
>> the .dot files to My Templates, open them all from the Project Gallery,
>> and
>> "Save As" the opened "Document1", etc. with the original document
>> (ex-template) name as Word Document with .doc extension. The tedious part
>> is
>> copying the name from the Finder to paste into the Save As dialog every
>> time. There's no way around that.
>>
>> I can check out a script to see if it will work on a selection of .cot
>> files
>> without having to move them anywhere. Back soon...
>>
>> --
>> Paul Berkowitz
>> MVP MacOffice
>> Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
>> AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>
>>
>> Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
>> ignored.
>>
>> PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
>> **2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
>> otherwise.
>>
>>
>>> From: CyberTaz <xyz@xxxxxxx>
>>> Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
>>> Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2005 09:46:40 -0400
>>> Subject: Re: Easy way to convert templates to documents?
>>>
>>> Hi Peter-
>>>
>>> Although this can probably be done with a script I can't tell you how to
>>> go
>>> about automating the process. However, if you go to Finder> Preferences>
>>> Advanced & check the option for Show all file extensions, you can edit
>>> the
>>> filenames in the Finder to .doc to change the file type. Another option
>>> would be to work through the file's Get Info panel to do the same thing.
>>>
>>> HTH |:>)
>>>
>>>
>>> On 4/8/05 9:47 PM, in article elcJXYKPFHA.3928@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
>>> "Peter
>>> Bako" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have a client where about a year ago a user started a document and
>>>> saved
>>>> it as a .dot file. The problem is that she kept the file out in an open
>>>> area that everyone else can get to and people started to use it as a
>>>> template - but not in the Word use of the term. Instead they double
>>>> click
>>>> on it, modify it and then do a File/Save As on it without changing the
>>>> file
>>>> type to a .doc file. Since then this has multiplied into hundreds (if
>>>> not
>>>> thousands) of .dot files across the server being used as if they were
>>>> real
>>>> Word documents.
>>>>
>>>> This occasionally causes weird issues with Word, so I've recommended
>>>> that
>>>> they convert all these into .doc files. Problem is the only way I know
>>>> of
>>>> to do this, is to drag each .dot file into their My Templates folder,
>>>> start
>>>> Word and then create a new document based on this "template". Once the
>>>> document comes up, do an immediate Save As to a doc file, then delete
>>>> the
>>>> original .dot and replace it. As you can imagine this is painful and a
>>>> few
>>>> of my users are having problems even getting this to work.
>>>>
>>>> So, is there any kind of an easy way to convert a large number of .dot
>>>> files
>>>> to .doc files? Or at least an easier way to convert a single .dot to a
>>>> .doc
>>>> that I can have the users do? I've tried to just double click on the
>>>> .dot
>>>> file (which opens up in template edit mode not as a new doc) and then do
>>>> a
>>>> Save As do a .doc file, but you get an error saying you cannot save a
>>>> template as a doc format!
>>>>
>>>> About 90% of the users are running Office V.x but a few are running
>>>> 2004.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Peter
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> -- generaltaz1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

.

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