Is includetext usable?

[Guest]

I am using Word 2000. I have reviewed Daiya Mitchel and Cindy Meister's
excellent article "How to Use Includetext Fields". I would like to be able to
use the includetext field to include over one hundred documents into a master
document. To simplify this problem, I have all the source files in the same
folder with the master document. I do not want to embed the full path in each
reference because this file and all the source files will be moved around as
we put these files under control, into ClearCase, etc. I enclose the complete
file name and path in double quotes because they contain spaces.

I have tried: 1.) deleting the file path, leaving only the source file name;
2) using a path name of ".\\" to mean the current folder; and 3) deleting the
path, leaving only the source file name and entering a Hyperlink base in
Files->Properties, such as "T:\\Test\Test Scripts\Final" or "T:\\Test\Test
Scripts\Final\". None of these approaches has worked. When I update the link
I get the "Error! Cannot Open File.".

Any ideas?

PS, any ideas as to why Microsoft refuses to fix this problem? It seems to
be in 2000, 2003, and 2005 as I read the threads.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

There is no 2005 yet, just by the way. MacWord 2004.

I did some testing and got weird results using a hyperlink base, but not yet
sorted. (I thought I tested hyperlink base, but it's possible I believed
Help on that).

As a test--try this. With your includetext fields set up as relative paths
to only the filename (no hyperlink base) open and close any doc from the
folder where everything is stored. If you read the article, you know that
this sets that folder as the 'active folder' in Word's view, and it will
judge the relative links from that. If you ensure that active folder is the
correct one, do the links update okay?

Re both the hyperlink base and the DocProperty route, I am not sure whether
this piece of advice applies to the text in File>Properties. "While a
regular WinWord path would only use a single \ between folders, within a
field the filepath requires \\." Test it out?

The article also suggested another method. Did you try this one? It may be
most reliable, as it leaves very little up to Word.

Workaround 2: use absolute filepaths, but create a custom document property
to store the base filepath (File>Properties>Custom). Then use a DocProperty
field to carry the path info into the IncludeText fields. You can easily
change the custom document property in File>Properties. The nested fields
might look like this:

{ INCLUDETEXT "{ DOCPROPERTY LinkFilePath }Source.doc" Bookmark }

 

[Guest]

Dalya, I have used your Workaround #2, as mentioned in your paper. I defined
a custom DocProperty called filepath. I doubled all the reverse slashes in
the path name. I then edited each IncludeText field to use a reference to
that DocProperty. I unchecked the box on the Insert Field dialog box to
prevent the automatic insertion of the MERGEFELD term This resulted in
something like { INCLUDETEXT "{ DOCPROPERTY FilePath }Source.Doc" } . Of
course this resulted in a lot of editing.

I did not find that specifying the hyperlink base for the document, as
mentioned as your Workaround 1, worked.

I find it incredulous that Microsoft hasn't fixed this problem and allowed
for straightforward use of relative paths in Word. It is bad enough that I
encountered the problem in Word 2000. To hear that the problem continues to
exist right up to the present is astounding.