Word to ask for a filename before starting work

[Paul Nolan]

I'm a school teacher. I use Word *lots*, and so do my students.

I'd love Word to have an option to always ask for a filename before anything
can be written in a document. Would ensure that all work could be printed out
the filename in the footer - instead of syaing "Document 1".

Yes, I know I could go down the macro route - but a default option would be
brilliant.



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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...26265e&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Gordon Bentley-Mix on news.microsoft.com]

Paul,

I do a lot of work with Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS) that
work this way: the user *must* name the file - and provide a few additional
details - before being allowed to work on it. (It's called "pre-profiling" in
the EDMS world.) Ostensibly this is so *every* document that the user creates
is stored in the EDMS without fail. Most users absolutely HATE it. I suspect
this is because they don't know what to call a document until after they've
put some content into it.

Accordingly, given the resistance to / dislike of this process in the EDMS
user community, I don't see MSFT implementing similar functionality in Word,
even as an optional setting. Therefore, I suspect a VBA solution will remain
the only choice.
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup.

Read the original version of this post in the Office Discussion Groups - no
membership required!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Is there at least provision for renaming the document under EDMS? I do a lot
of work for clients where I gradually figure out what the document is about,
where it should be filed, etc., and then name and save it. And then
sometimes the client will ask that it be given a different name. With one
particular client, I'll usually ask, "What is your internal reference for
this case?" so we can be on the same page. The name he has given it is
rarely what I would have come up with!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Gordon Bentley-Mix on news.microsoft.com"

 

[Gordon Bentley-Mix on news.microsoft.com]

Suzanne,

Generally most EDMS have some sort of functionality for renaming documents
after they're created, although in some instances this may require
"administrator access" to do so. (Varying amounts of the metadata about the
document can be modified as well.) What _doesn't_ change is the internal
"document ID" that the EMDS uses to track the document within the document
store.

I suspect that process you describe as "gradually [figuring] out what the
document is about, where it should be filed, etc., and then name and save it"
is the process that most Word users follow, hence their dislike of
pre-profiling. In the cases where pre-profiling is required, we see a lot of
documents with meaningless names - at least initially - and since one of the
purposes of EDMS is to track the revision history of the document, these
"early" names tend to still be accessible long after the document has been
given its final, meaningful name. It can make for some very entertaining
reading at times... ;-P
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup.

Read the original version of this post in the Office Discussion Groups - no
membership required!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I can well imagine. I have one client who ran for mayor last year and lost
by a very narrow margin. The vile and smarmy incumbent was returned and has
been proving viler (and more satire-worthy) by the day, so my client has
been writing a lot of Letters to the Editor. At some point the editor
decided to give him regular column space, but it was several weeks before I
picked up on this and went back to rename his LTTEs (which are filed as
correspondence) as "To the Citizens of Fairhope <publication date>" and put
them in a new folder.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Gordon Bentley-Mix on news.microsoft.com"

Suzanne,

Generally most EDMS have some sort of functionality for renaming documents
after they're created, although in some instances this may require
"administrator access" to do so. (Varying amounts of the metadata about
the
document can be modified as well.) What _doesn't_ change is the internal
"document ID" that the EMDS uses to track the document within the document
store.

I suspect that process you describe as "gradually [figuring] out what the
document is about, where it should be filed, etc., and then name and save
it"
is the process that most Word users follow, hence their dislike of
pre-profiling. In the cases where pre-profiling is required, we see a lot
of
documents with meaningless names - at least initially - and since one of
the
purposes of EDMS is to track the revision history of the document, these
"early" names tend to still be accessible long after the document has been
given its final, meaningful name. It can make for some very entertaining
reading at times... ;-P
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

Please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup.

Read the original version of this post in the Office Discussion Groups -
no
membership required!

Is there at least provision for renaming the document under EDMS? I do a
lot
of work for clients where I gradually figure out what the document is
about,
where it should be filed, etc., and then name and save it. And then
sometimes the client will ask that it be given a different name. With one
particular client, I'll usually ask, "What is your internal reference for
this case?" so we can be on the same page. The name he has given it is
rarely what I would have come up with!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

"Gordon Bentley-Mix on news.microsoft.com"