deploying a template for organisation

[Guest]

I guess preparation is key here.

We want to allow users to access a template which when printed will be on
headed paper. Each department should be able to add to the template their
own specific details which should appear in exactly in the right place on the
headed paper. Traditionally the individual details where already printed on
the letter headed paper but in a costs cutting exercise the idea is just to
have the logo and for users to add their own data in themselves.

What would be the best way of A) deploying such a template globally and B)
creating a template so that people could add their own department details
which MUST go in the exact place on the paper with least amount of thinking
involved.

I'm thinking fillin fields or such like but maybe there are better
alternatives. We would also want to protect the document to some extent so
people where forced to use the template as it was intended.

Thanks in advance

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Burt

The best solution to this will depend on the following. Can you let us know:
- what version of Word?
- how many Departments?
- does each individual person have individual information on the document,
or is it only department-related information?
- roughly, how many people in each Department?
- roughly, how often does the information change?

Shauna

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Guest]

Hi

- Office 2003
- Over 3000 staff members
- Only department information
- 500+
- not very often

hope that helps

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Burt

There are more solutions to this problem than there are people to come up
with ideas. Here's one:

1. With 3,000 employees and 500 in each department, I'm assuming half a
dozen or so departments. Create a .dot template file for each department.
This file contains nothing but one AutoText named (say) LetterheadAddress.
That AutoText contains the address details for that department, formatted in
the appropriate style.

It doesn't matter what you call the .dot files (they can be, eg
MarketingAddress.dot, FinanceAddress.dot). But the name of the AutoText must
be the same in each department's .dot file. And the AutoText's name must be
unique among all AutoTexts in all global templates the user has installed.
With 3,000 people you have no idea what AutoTexts people might have. So
choose a name a bit more inventive than, say, "Address".


2. Deploy these .dot files containing the address info into the Word Startup
folder for each user. That's the folder shown at Tools > Options > File
Locations > Startup. Deploy the MarketingAddress.dot to the people in the
marketing department and the FinanceAddress.dot to the people in finance,
etc. The preferred method is to use a login script to check the date of the
master copy of the file on a server against the copy on the user's local
machine and, if the server copy is newer, copy down the file to the local
machine.

A .dot file in the Startup folder does not act as a template. Instead, it
acts as an add-in, and its AutoText will be available to all Word documents.


3. Create your template. In the place where you want the address to appear,
do ctrl-F9 and, within the braces that Word gives you, type AUTOTEXT
LetterheadAddress \* MERGEFORMAT

Press F9 to update the field and save.

Deploy this template to the User Templates folder for each user. Again, a
login script is the preferred method for deployment.


4. (Optional, but recommended) When a user creates a new document from the
template using File > New, the AutoText field will display the value of the
LetterheadAddress AutoText found on the user's machine in (eg)
MarketingAddress.dot or FinanceAddress.dot or whatever.

That means that, when Finance moves into its new glamorous headquarters, you
will update the FinanceAddress.dot file and deploy it. And that means that
when a user opens an *old* document it will update to display the *new*
address. You probably don't want that. So what would be good is to turn the
field into hard text whenever a user creates a new document.

So put something like this in the template:

Sub AutoNew()

'AutoNew macro runs whenever we create a new document
'from this template


Dim wdField As Word.Field

'Go find our LetterheadAddress field...
For Each wdField In ActiveDocument.Fields
If wdField.Type = wdFieldAutoText Then
If wdField.Code Like "*LetterheadAddress*" Then
'... update it
wdField.Update

'... and unlink it
wdField.Unlink
Exit For
End If
End If
Next wdField

Set wdField = Nothing

End Sub


Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much for the information and the time you've taken to give it.