"It must have been something with the template" (SOLVED!)

[ChrisGreaves]

How's my logic this morning? Am I thinking straight?

Code: Select all

08/02/2011  11:12 AM            54,784 FACSIMILE COVER PAGE.dot
08/03/2011  08:10 AM            53,760 FACSIMILE COVER PAGE2.dot
08/02/2011  11:12 AM            65,024 KSL Letter to Individual.dot
08/03/2011  08:10 AM            63,488 KSL Letter to Individual2.dot
08/02/2011  11:12 AM           106,496 KSL Letterhead.dot
08/03/2011  08:11 AM           104,960 KSL Letterhead2.dot

I have a question on logic, but I've posted in this forum because it *might* be relevant to MSWord.

Yesterday my client phoned; there's a problem with mail-merge templates on *their* client's systems; used to work; they installed new 3rd-party software (which we'll call "Amicus" for want of a better identification) and now the templates that used to work under Office 2007 and Office 2010 won't work under Office 2007 - but will work under Office 2010.

I know nothing about Amicus, so I take copies of the three templates and fake a little Word table database and run mail-merge on both my Win7HP/Office2003 system and my Win7SE/Office2007 system.
No problems show up.
There is *no* VBA code in any of the templates. So I reason it can't be the usual culprit (hard-coded literals for path names etc.).
I say I'm 90% sure the problem lies in the installation at the client's client.
90% sure, because the templates are one-page name-address devices. No weird fields or anything.
Looks-like: Been developed by someone who went on a 1-day "Intermediate Word" course ten years ago.

I came up with a few clutching-at-straw experiments aimed at poking the problem with a stick, but this morning the client reports:-
"It must have been something with the template or the new one. I created a new template from the existing and made the letterhead changes. All is now running."

I'm left scratching my head. I have "rebuilt" each of the three templates with Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, F12 and while my new versions "2" in the list above are smaller, not by much.
It looks as if there haven't been enough changes to render them corrupt by any stretch of the imagination.
The mail-merge fields are dead-simple.

It really looks to me as if the client's client installation is changed.

The only way I could test this is to ask my client to rerun with the old templates, and see if they still fail under Office 2007, but it's a bit cheeky asking their client's client to pay big bucks to satisfy my curiosity about logic.

The mental trigger for me is the word "must" in the blue quote above; any time someone declares "it must be this" without some sort of scientific method experiment behind it leaves me feeling suspicious.

This is not a big deal; it just bugs me; I hate to see a funny problem dismissed as "probably it was this", without being sure that it *was* this.

Thanks for any cogitative expressions ...

[ChrisGreaves]

I have a question on logic, but I've posted in this forum because it *might* be relevant to MSWord.

What did I learn from this?
After a few minutes of red-face this morning, I've decided that the next time a client emails me "templates that aren't working", I'll Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, F12 them into new templates on principle and ship them back saying "try these".

At which time, of course, the client will declare it a problem with the installation.

a.k.k. You Just Can't Win.

[ChrisGreaves]

... I've posted in this forum because it *might* be relevant to MSWord.

What is written below may well apply to other Document Management Systems.

I just got off the phone with Kim; she'll tell you all about it next time she buys you lunch (grin).
We had some templates which "Didn't work" under a new Amicus installation.

I tested the templates, and reasoned, that they could not be corrupt (details next time YOU buy ME lunch!!) and we think it boils down to this:

* One cannot create Word templates and drop them into place and then tell Amicus where they are.
* One has to create and saveAs the templates from Within Amicus.


That seems reasonable - as long as one knows about it; Amicus promises to look after templates and documents as long as Amicus has complete control over them.
There must be something in the saveAs code in Amicus that adds an entry to a table somewhere; skip the Amicus saveAs and you don't get an updated table.