Converting files to Office 2007

[Adri]

We are migrating to Office 2007. When we convert files that are stored on
any network drive, using Office Button>Convert, and then clicking Save, the
original .doc files aren't replaced with the .docx file. Instead, it does a
SaveAs instead of a Save and creates a 2nd copy in the new format.

The convert feature works properly if the files are saved locally, but not
on a mapped network drive.

Does anyone know why this happens and how to get around it?

 

[StefanKZVB]

Hi Adri,

on the Word blog someone tries to give reasons why they did THAT:

"Not deleting the DOC file on Convert when the file is not on a local drive
is actually a design decision that we believe is still the right compromise.
When the file is local, the text in the dialog is accurate (the DOC file is
deleted after the DocX file is created). However, we determined that when the
file is not stored locally, it’s more likely that a link exists pointing to
that file (because it’s quite possible that the reason that the file isn’t
local is because it’s on shared resource). Therefore, we decided that when
the file was stored remotely, it was better to preserve the DOC rather than
create broken links—and our early testing indicated that having the dialog
box distinguish these two cases just seemed to confuse users more than
provide clarity."
(from
http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2008/01/15/word-q-a.aspx#7701870)

IMHO things are a bit different - I think it's actually a bug with network
locations
because Word behaves with network drives different than with local drives in
other situations as well.

But please do NOT hesitate to contact MS support on this bug.
If enough people call them this MIGHT get EVENTUALLY fixed.

Stefan