Templates Distribute over the web?

[Cruser01]

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?

 

[Jay Freedman]

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
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Cruser01]

This statement:


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
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

When I click on the link the microsoft box comes up with the standard choices of download, save, cancel. The name of the document is sample.doc not sample.dot. That is why I say it's not coming down as a template. When I do a right click the same thing happens.

The documents are transmitted via dreamweaver's configured ftp. The files
on the server still are sample.dot, but I am not sure what this sentence
means: "Does your web server have a MIME type assignment for *.dot files as

"application/msword"?" Do I look in Dreamweaver where the files are transferred or contact IT to find this out?

I can look into zipping the files, but we have everyone from novice to
expert user out there. If we could simplfy the movement of these templates
to the local offices that would be great.

 

[Jay Freedman]

The documents are transmitted via dreamweaver's configured ftp. The
files on the server still are sample.dot, but I am not sure what this
sentence means: "Does your web server have a MIME type assignment
for *.dot files as

I can look into zipping the files, but we have everyone from novice to
expert user out there. If we could simplfy the movement of these
templates to the local offices that would be great.

You're going to have to involve IT with this. The MIME type is a setting in
the web server (Microsoft Internet Information Services, or Apache, or
whatever they're using) that tells it how to handle various file types. That
isn't something you have direct control of.

Tell the IT analyst the symptoms you're seeing (wrong file extension and
type), and let them investigate. Don't mention MIME types -- it would be
like telling your doctor that you have a specific disease; that diagnosis is
their job, not yours.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.