Can anyone help me at all?? Word gurus? 1

[Edmee]

I have posted this problem in several Office and Word forums but no one seems to know the answer:
We recently moved our data to a new server and the old Word documents originally created on the old server still have the old server name embedded, causing them to open up very, very slowly. (ie up to 5 minutes). I have tried to disable the use of UNC but this did not solve the problem. Manually renaming the servernames using a hex editor solves the problem but this is a very cumbersome process. Is there any way to rename the old server name automatically? Or is there perhaps a different solution to the problem?
Thanks very much in advance.

 

[Dreamboat]

You say the name of the old server is "embedded" in them. What does that mean? Do you have LINKED graphics in these files that are trying to link to the new server name and you want them to link to the new server name?

How many files are we talking about?

Let me know....maybe I can get some interest going.
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Edmee]

I am unable to find any references to the old server name within Word. However when I open the file in a hex editor (eg UltraEdit) the old servername clearly shows up. After modifying the servername with the hexeditor to point to the new server, the slowness problem dissapears and the document opens up straight away.

 

[Dreamboat]

Thanks, Edmee. Can you answer my other questions?

Do you have LINKED graphics in these files that are trying to link to the new server name and you want them to link to the new server name?

How many files are we talking about?


techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Edmee]

No, no linked graphics. Total number of files are unknown but I think there may be several hundred.

 

[JVFriederick]

What happens after the file is saved to a new location, and then opened again? Same time to open, or much faster?

 

[Edmee]

I just save one of the problem files to another server, then re-opened it. It still takes the same amount of time, approx. 3 minutes.

 

[Dreamboat]

Just thinking out loud---are these based on a template that's on the server? *.dot file?
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Dreamboat]

Here's a lovely little fix...

How to Remove Network or Hard Disk Information
When you save a document to your local hard disk or to a network server, information that identifies the local hard disk or network server may be written into the document.
You can remove this information from the document by performing the following steps:
Open the document.
On the File menu, click Save As. Save the document to your floppy disk drive (usually, A.
On the File menu, click Close.
Remove the floppy disk from your floppy disk drive.
You can now use the Windows Explorer to copy the document from the floppy disk to any hard disk or network server.

From Microsoft's article, do ya believe it?:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q237/3/61.ASP

I'm thinking you try this:

Create code that forces the save location to the new server. Have someone start opening the files (or get lucky enough to have someone write that part into the code) in groups of 10 or something (hold shift or ctrl key while selecting filenames, then open). Hit save, close; save, close; save, close. Put the code in normal.dot on this machine for the day--fix them all, remove the code.

Want to look into that?




techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Edmee]

I have tried saving to A: then copying the file through Explorer to another server but it still opens at the same slow rate. Yes, some of the files (but not all) are based on several templates but new files created with the same templates do not open slowly. Only documents created on the old server, which were then moved to the new server, have this problem.

 

[Dreamboat]

Sorry, Edmee. I should have asked before. What kind of server?
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Edmee]

All data servers are NetWare 5 servers. I have noticed that doing a Save as to my C: drive does not make a difference either. Opening the file from C: drive still takes about 3 minutes. I do not have Outlook in case you're wondering. I've heard that Outlook's journal can cause slowness problems as well.

 

[Dreamboat]

Shoot. Version of Office?
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Edmee]

Office97 only.

 

[Dreamboat]

This is all that I could find. Note that this article applies only to Office 97 and says nothing about being supported on Netware 5.0. However, Office XP's article (link in this article) is supported by Netware 5.0. I can't help but think they'd have put it if it was supported.

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q160/5/30.ASP

techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[PhilipSchroevers]

Interesting problem! I've tried a few things. Apparently Word keeps track of (the locations of) all Saves that have been done on a document (if you find only one occurence of the old server name in a document, I suppose it has never been modified after creation?).

I can think of two solutions:

1. write a script that does something like:

For Each Document to be converted do
OpenDocument
Select all & copy
Create new document
Paste
Do same thing for Header and Footer
Do same thing for non inline Shapes
Save as Documentname in new location

Actually, this shouldn't be too difficult, but It may need some investigation for complex documents.

2. Open the document, save it as a Word6.0/95 document (and next time as an ordinary Word doc), this will get rid of the Save history, but of course is only reliable if the document does not use specific Word97 stuff that will be lost in the process. This method should be implemented in a script too.

 

[Edmee]

Thank you all for looking into my problem. It is a mind-boggler isn't it? I shall try the copy and paste script as well as have another look around on other forums. I have noticed other people experiencing this problem but a real solution has never been offered. If I find it I will let you know. Thanks for your all your time and effort!

Edmee