 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussionsAccessExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointPublisherWordDirectoryUser Groups Related Topics Outlook ExpressInternet ExplorerWindowsMS Server ProductsMore Topics ... |
MS Office Forum / Word / Programming / January 2006DOC or DOT for emailed forms?
I am sending to participants in a survey a simple MS Word document containing checkboxes and text form fields . (There's no VBA in it, but this newsgroup seems the most relevant.) I am asking recipients to fill out the form, save the file and send it back as an email attachment. All help from Microsoft and other sources recommends sending the file as a Word template (.dot) rather than as a normal .doc. Can someone explain the advantage of doing this? If someone completes a file sent as a .dot and then does a "Save As", they will find themselves looking at their Templates folder -- a place that most users rarely visit that is deeply buried in the disk structure. So why not use the normal .doc extension? Thanks. David David: Most people distributing forms are distributing them for use by the user over and over again (usually within the company). Sounds to me like yours is a "once and done" so that distributing as a DOT is rather silly. I would send it as a DOC. Also, default double-click action on a DOT is to create a new file from the DOT (document 1), but I didn't test and don't know if that's the case when they double-click the attachment from their email. ************ Hope it helps! Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com >I am sending to participants in a survey a simple MS Word document >containing checkboxes and text form fields . (There's no VBA in it, but [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > David Thanks, Anne, I'm sending it as a doc. Best wishes, David > David: Most people distributing forms are distributing them for use by the > user over and over again (usually within the company). Sounds to me like [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] >> >> David You're welcome! ************ Hope it helps! Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com > Thanks, Anne, I'm sending it as a doc. > [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] >>> >>> David Just out of interest can you advise where the the "help from Microsoft <snip> recommends sending the file as a Word template (.dot) rather than as a normal .doc"  SignatureHope this helps. Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my services on a paid consulting basis. Doug Robbins - Word MVP >I am sending to participants in a survey a simple MS Word document >containing checkboxes and text form fields . (There's no VBA in it, but [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > David Doug - In Microsoft Office Word 2003 SP1, see the Help topic "Create forms that users complete in Word". David > Just out of interest can you advise where the the "help from Microsoft > <snip> recommends sending the file as a Word template (.dot) rather than [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >> >> David I'll be darned. ************ Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com > Doug - In Microsoft Office Word 2003 SP1, see the Help topic "Create forms > that users complete in Word". [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] >>> >>> David >I'll be darned. Me too. :-) I think the answer is that the help topic also recommends adding macros ("Automate your form" under step 7), and macros in ordinary documents trigger the macro security mechanism. Using a template sidesteps that problem, but it forces the form to save in the Templates folder. There really isn't any good solution to this dilemma if you need macros in your form. Where the help topic oversimplifies is that if you don't use any macros (and also avoid the ActiveX controls in the Control Toolbox), then an ordinary document is perfectly usable. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. >I'll be darned. >************ [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] >>>> >>>> David Yeah, and right now, I'm trying to make a (better than MS's) cookbook template. I want to use autotext, yet I don't want to distribute it as a template because it's likely they'll only use it once. So, instead, I'm including in the instructions how to make their own autotext entry. ************ Hope it helps! Anne Troy www.OfficeArticles.com > >I'll be darned. > Me too. :-) [quoted text clipped - 56 lines] >>>>> >>>>> David I'm not entirely sure I follow, Jay. Code in a template will trigger the same macro warnings as code in a document. It may not on the machine it is created on if it is saved in a trusted location (not forced - just defaulted), but if sent as an attachment and 'opened' directly from the e-mail, it will. Also, if you e-mail a template, 'opening' it from the e-mail will create a new document (not the template itself as seems to be being suggested by David) which can't accidentally be saved in a temporary location and then possibly lost - it must be explicitly saved somewhere (and will default to My Documents or whatever default the recipient has set on their machine). This seems to nicely sidestep the generally recommended practice of saving attachments and opening the saved copy. If the new document is returned to the sender they still have the template it goes with. I'm not sure I see why you're all surprised by the recommendation. -- Enjoy, Tony > >I'll be darned. > Me too. :-) [quoted text clipped - 58 lines] > >>>> > >>>> David Hi Tony, Obviously I hadn't tried out the process or thought it all the way through. I've tried it now, mailing myself a template from my work PC to home. Your observations are all correct. For some reason I was thinking that a template mailed as an attachment should be saved in the Templates folder, where it would (usually) be trusted. Of course, most users wouldn't think to do that; if they saved it at all, it would probably be in My Documents or some other document folder where it wouldn't be trusted. -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. >I'm not entirely sure I follow, Jay. Code in a template will trigger the >same macro warnings as code in a document. It may not on the machine it is [quoted text clipped - 88 lines] >> >>>> >> >>>> David
|
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.