Moving corporate templates - Word loading very slow 1

[TimKidney]

We have an area where corporate templates are stored and accessed by all users for various systems.

These were on an NT server in a shared folder but have now been moved to a new location on our main 2003 File Server that is advertised using DFS.

All users have had their default Template location changed within in word so pick up all templates as they should when producing new documents.

The problem is we were getting calls from users saying it is taking 2-3 minutes to open a simple word document.

When we investigated it we found that the Template location within that particular word document was pointing to the old location which we would expect as its refferring to the location of the template at the time of creation?

What we dont understand is why it tries to connect to the template that has subsequently moved and had its share disabled to ensure users are using the new location of templates?

I ran a Filemon and for sure it listed BAD NETWORK NAME with the offending old template location listed.

To prove this further we enabled the old share and all documents opened instantly?

How to we tell word either not to refer to the original template or that the location is now different?

This is causing massive problems for us so id be very grateful if anyone could offer guidance?

Many thanks

Tim

 

[TonyJollans]

This is a known issue with Word and there is nothing much you can do. The path to the template is stored in the document and Word will try to open it (and suffer the network wait) unless you have a template with the same name in the same folder as the document. It may or may not be possible, depending on exactly what you have and what you need, for you to leverage this.

In theory you could crack open the binary file and edit it but you would need to be quite familiar with the format for that to be viable.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Try searching here as someone (actually a few) had the same problem. Essentially you have to REattach the template to each document but use the correct (new) location.

Gerry

 

[TimKidney]

We have discovered another weird outcome with regards to this issue that id like to throw on the table..

When a users tries to access the document with the missing template for the first time it takes however long the registry cache (

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823372/)

is set to look for the missing link.

But...when the user attempts to load either the same document or another document that is attempting to load the same missing template, it opens straight away?

Its like it has cached somewhere that the path of the template is not available so dont bother looking for it?

As we have only a few templates that have been moved this would be a satisfactory solution for our users but we are a bit concerned that if this is cached somewhere, how long will it stay like for as it might attempt again say in 24 hours etc?

Any advice on this would be greatly received.

 

[TonyJollans]

My *suspicion* would be that Word remembers for, at most, the lifetime of the current Word session, but trial and error would be the easiest way to find out.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[orman]

There are some scripts out there that will go through the documents on your server and change the document's base template. I'll look for them and if I find them again I'll post it.

 

[MasterRacker]

We've seen this as well. If you look at the Word status bar during the wait, you'll see a message giving the file it's searching for. You can hit ESC to cancel the search and save some time but it is annoying.

A script to modify the docs would be a better long term solution.

I've always assumed the purpose in saving the template path is to provide a framework to allow one to change a single template and "magically" change the formatting of documents linked to it, but I've never found a setting for this.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[orman]

Link one - script is near the bottom:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823372/en-us

Link two - Unfortunately, You need an account with expert-exchange to use this link. The script they have here is different.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Sof.../Office_Suites/MS_Office/Word/Q_23803730.html

Of course these would need some modification.

 

[fumei]

I've always assumed the purpose in saving the template path is to provide a framework to allow one to change a single template and "magically" change the formatting of documents linked to it, but I've never found a setting for this. "

Tools > Templates and Add-ins

There is a checkbox: Automatically update document styles

If this is checked, then yes, if you change a style in the attached .DOT file, a document with this checked will change "magically".

Gerry

 

[MasterRacker]

fumei,
Thanks. They've moved it in '07 but I managed to find it with your hint. Word Options > Add-ins > Manage (Templates) > Go... Talk about burying something...

Too bad they don't also provide a checkbox to disable saving the template link in the document.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[MasterRacker]

I also did find in '07 you can go to Developer > Document Template > Templates and change the location of the attached template on a document by document basis. This would never work for a large group of docs of course.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[fumei]

Huh?

"Too bad they don't also provide a checkbox to disable saving the template link in the document. "

Would that not disable the whole point of a template? And every Word document has a template attached to it. You can not have a document that is not "linked" (attached) to a template.

Although, yes, I do see - in theory - that you could have a point. Moving the source template, as in the case of this thread, does indeed cause problems. However, it is a problem that is inherent in document model.

Gerry

 

[MasterRacker]

I respectfully disagree. The information in the template is copied into every new document created from it. If the original template is deleted, documents retain their formatting, showing the template is no longer needed. The only reason to keep a link would be to change a document when a template changes - however this is not the default and I suspect few people ever enable that.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]

 

[TonyJollans]

>The information in the template is copied into every new document created from it.

Some of the information in the template is copied into every new document created from it.

Exactly what happens depends on what you have in your Template and what you want to do with your Document. It is, of course, true that many Documents do not need a link maintaining to the Template from which they were created - in which case it would be prudent of the Template developer to break the link after creation.

I'm afraid I don't know what you are saying is not a default.

There is, perhaps, a case for enabling Documents to not have an attached Template but the mechanism for dealing with missing Templates more or less achieves that, in effect. The problem is the network delay - if it weren't for that issue everything else would become moot.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[orman]

If you can't deal with that script mentioned earlier, and you don't mind going document by document, you could make a macro with the coding below, and then create a button on the toolbar to run this macro when clicked. (Put it on a secretary's pc who has nothing to do. )

Sub Macro1()
With ActiveDocument
.AttachedTemplate = "normal.dot"
End With
End Sub

 

[mdav2]

We used shortcuts to reference some of our templates (allows you to maintain a single version and access it from several different locations). When we did a big server move everything work fine until the old servers were switched off. Couldn't work out why.

The shortcuts created point to a mapped drive which existed. If you drag and drop the shortcut onto a blank notepad document it shows you path information. we found the shortcut also stored the server details. When you launched the shortcut it would search all the servers to try and find a match then it would use the mapped drive location on the machine.

We just recreated the shortcuts and the problem went away.

I also found that this was a problem with old documents created in older version of word. I think re-saving them using a later version fixed the problem.

Mark Davies
Warwickshire County Council