Re: Easy way to convert templates to documents?

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I would much prefer for the users to drop individual (or a small group) of
templates onto the app rather than a utility that finds all of them and
converts on the fly. For one most of these users are not very technical, so
if they mess this up I would rather restore a few files than a whole mess,
plus very few of the files actually have extensions on them...

Peter

"Paul Berkowitz" <berkowit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BE7DCC9F.92872%berkowit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 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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