What is ghostservice and why is Word trying to contact it? 3

[1DMF]

Hi,

We have been sent a word document, but when trying to open it it just hangs...

What is it trying to do?

What is a ghostservice and why is it trying to contact it?

Thanks,

1DMF.


"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
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[MakeItSo]

Looks like Word is trying to load the underlying template - obviously not normal.dotm...
Ask your customer to send you the linked dotm, put it where the document is and it should load from local.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[fredericofonseca]

I would think it is a virus - .co is a colombian domain

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[1DMF]

It doesn't look right to me either, this is meant to be a final word doc, not a template, when you save a finished word doc and send it to someone, it shouldn't be trying to connect to anything should it?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
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[MakeItSo]

Is the document a .docm?

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[GHolden]

Could relate to ghostservices.co.uk who offer, hosted desktops (among other stuff)?

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

 

[1DMF]

Is the document a .docm?

No it's a .docx

Could relate to ghostservices.co.uk who offer, hosted desktops (among other stuff)?

Having contacted the user, this appears to be the case - good call!

I still don't understand why a saved .docx word doc isn't a finalised document that is portable and distributable?

Hosted cloud desktop and O365 shouldn't be causing these problems should they?

What would be the point of going cloud if it corrupts all your word docs and makes them un-shareable?

Is it the way they have saved the word doc - how many ways are there to save a word doc as .docx?

Any guidance is appreciated.






"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[MakeItSo]

That's what I meant. .docx does not have any macros. It can however be based on a specific template - and try to open that along with the document.
Have a look at this thread here and the proposed solution:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/word-opening-original-template-while-opening-file-t3854076.html

Good luck,
MakeItSo

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[1DMF]

I followed the link, but the suggested pressing 'Esc' to stop it trying to load the dodgy template doesn't work, Word just hangs.

If this is the way cloud services work, where Word will always try to load a template located on someone hosted desktop services, then Word has become useless and unusable.

Though we don't have this problem with documents based on a template that is locally stored on a users PC or corporate network share, this doesn't make sense?

We use .dot/.doc all the time for mail merges and dynamically produced letters etc.. we send these documents to people outside the corporate domain, yet they don't complain of this problem?

It is also worrying that this could be a mechanism for distributing viruses if when a Word doc is opened it tries to connect to some cloud service for no good reason to load who knows what!

I will have to suggest they either use Open Office locally installed on their machine or convert the document to PDF before sending it to us as we can no longer accept their Word documents as they are inoperable.

Thanks,
1DMF.


"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[GHolden]

IF" it's due to them using a Template that you can't access, I think you can get them to remove this prior to sending the document. Have a look at Word Option - Add-Ins - Manage Templates.

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

 

[MakeItSo]

1DMF, try using the info from the following MS KB article to set a timeout for loading the attached template, say to 5 seconds or so:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970270/en-us

MakeItSo

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[1DMF]

Well I got the user to send me an email with the documents attached.

And the new ones open fine?

Not sure what he originally attached to our system, but I have to assume it wasn't the correct document?

It wouldn't be the first time a users has uploaded the wrong document, they even for some bizarre reason upload PDF's with a .doc extension.

I think in their mind changing the file extension miraculously transforms the physical file into another format.

I have tried to explain using a cross dressing analogy...

If I put on a dress, I don't suddenly become a woman, I'm still just a man in a dress!



"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[MakeItSo]

Oh yes, all this sounds really familiar...
Check the attached template, they might have changed it to Normal.dotm. In that case, Word does not care which Normal.dotm it is, it just picks the local one.
Also: many customers have ...uh... less than perfect *cough* ...version control.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[GHolden]

Glad you've got it sorted

Version Control...??? Nope, new one on me...

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

 

[1DMF]

ahhh, spoke too soon.

When I opened the document, it displayed fine, because it was in 'read only' mode having been an email attachment.

When I click the 'enable editing' option, the document freezes trying to load that pesky cloud template.

And their lies the problem, our terminal services server only has 'Word Viewer' installed, to view a .docx document it has to convert it, to do that it needs to be 'editable', and therefore it crashes trying to load the cloud template.

Bah humbug!

There also seems to be a catch 22, to change the add-in template the document can't be in 'protected' mode, to take it out of protected mode, the template needs to be accessible.

I will walk them through the process of changing the template add-in before sending us the document, but I am concerned this then might produce a document that is not the true likeness of the document provided to the client, which may not be compliant.

I feel as I first thought, that this has made his Word unusable for sending us his documentation and the only solution to ensure we see a true likeness of the original document is to convert it to PDF and send us that instead.

Unless you know of another solution that doesn't require registry hacks?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[GHolden]

If you're worried about the doc not looking right if they remove the template.... you get a copy of the Template from them, copy to a local location and then re-link after you receive the file maybe?

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

 

[1DMF]

If you're worried about the doc not looking right if they remove the template.... you get a copy of the Template from them, copy to a local location and then re-link after you receive the file maybe?

no , we have over 350 members and we can't be messing about with that sort of thing.

I notice in the manage-templates there is an attach option, but then it seems to have a path to local file system, is there no way of embedding the template so the word document becomes portable?

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music

 

[GHolden]

Okay, that's no go then.

Not that I'm aware of, quick bit of googling show's that it a not uncommon problem. Only solutions I can find are: Local copies of the templates, code to strip the template refernce out (doesn't solve your problem) and you may as well just get them to send with no template, start Word from command line with switch to prevent template loading (see previous option).

There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.

 

[MakeItSo]

- Rename the .docx to .zip (or add .zip)
- Unpack
- open docProps\app.xml
- change the node <Template>xyz.dotm</Template> to <Template>Normal.dotm</Template>
- save, re-zip, re-name back .docx

Open and enjoy.

“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” (Kofi Annan)
Oppose SOPA, PIPA, ACTA; measures to curb freedom of information under whatever name whatsoever.

 

[1DMF]

We've gone down the path of least resistance and implemented the simplest of solutions, forget Word, convert to PDF and upload that instead!

I appreciate everyone's input on this, certainly learnt something new.

The rename, zippy thing again is not an option, the actual checkers of these case documents wouldn't have a clue on doing that and even finding the location of the document outside of the bespoke application is a total mare!

I have to access the SQL server, search for the case record, find out the lead id, then navigate a massive NAS file server to find the actual document, doing this on a doc by doc basis for the 10's of 1'000's of case files, is totally impractical.

The case checkers simply need to click the document in the application window and it just open, anything else blows their mind!

Users gotta love em!



"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

"If a shortcut was meant to be easy, it wouldn't be a shortcut, it would be the way!"
Free Electronic Dance Music