Re: Templates Distribute over the web?

Cruser01 wrote:
We have a letterhead template we want to distribute to local offices.
Can we distribute them over the web? If we put them on the web and
the offices copy them down they are copied as documents. How do they
get the template copied down to their local machines? Do we need to
get IT involved using SMS?

This statement:

If we put them on the web and
the offices copy them down they are copied as documents.

indicates that somehow you aren't doing something correctly. You _should_ be
able to store templates on a web server and download them as templates.
There's no need for SMS or anything more complicated than a browser and a
correctly configured web server.

First, are you sure you're putting *.dot files on the server? How are you
doing it, with Windows Explorer's FTP or with a dedicated FTP client or
something else? Can you verify that the files on the server still have the
correct extension and type?

Does your web server have a MIME type assignment for *.dot files as
"application/msword"?

When you right-click a link to one of these templates and choose "Save
Target As", what file type does the Save As dialog indicate? What extension
does it want to assign to the file name?

Finally, exactly what are you seeing that makes you think the files are
documents rather than templates? Is it just the extension? What happens if
you rename one of these files as a *.dot file and store it in your Templates
folder?

One bit of advice: Although it makes for an extra step or two, it's much
safer to store templates and documents on the server as zip files and
extract them after downloading. The reason is that a zip file includes a
mechanism ("cyclic redundancy check") that can automatically tell you if the
file was damaged in transit. A .dot or .doc file has no such mechanism, and
a damaged template can cause problems that are very difficult to diagnose.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.


.

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