Word files -vs- lazy coworkers

Posted in xn--kfs74mzzid01b.com edit by wktd on January 8th, 2009

  • Hello to the board!! Discovered you thru Mr. Excel.

    My dilemma-----

    One of my tasks at work is to establish various documents, forms, templates, and spreasheets. We use Word`00 with Win`00. I do this and make sure that I put the complete file name and path on each and every document no matter what.

    Directly in front of the computer is a large graphic that I made, at the request of my boss, which indicates that if the document data says 'this' then you open Word (large arrow pointing to the icon) , if the data says 'that' , then you open Excel (large arrow pointing to the icon).

    Now, the lazy part comes in with the day staff. Since this computer also has Lotus SmartSuite`97 on it, they click on those icons for everything, because . . . . . . (well, I don't have a good opinion at the moment, so I won't answer the because). Then when the template or form doesn't look or print the way it is supposed to, they become Chicken Little, squawk, squawk, squawk, and just know that it is something that I have done! (my opinion of their attitude is very low at the moment)

    My question-----

    Is there ANY way that I can make the Word documents not open in Lotus WordPro???? Can they be locked or ``something`` so that the docs can be opened and printed, but they have to be opened in the correct program.

    I've thought of passwords, but then will be accused of not being a very good team player. And there will be more Chicken Little squawking.

    Yes, I have repeatedly suggested that `they` attend a basic Word class. It continues to fall on deaf ears. The boss won't insist.

    Thanks for listening and for the help!!


  • Ah! Just because I come up with an idea doesn't mean I know how to implement it. In this case, I know absolutely nothing about Lotus WordPro programming.


  • Thanks TM,,,, hadn't thougth of using a macro and my skills are rusty in that area.

    I like the idea of the first page warning, may think on that a while. You are absolutely right in that management is not pushing the issue, but apparently he doesn't mind the continued screw ups and the fact that he is paying 2 people to do the same thing. Good work if you can get it, right???? Except when it drives you crazy. Now, if I were part of the day staff --which is NOT going to happen any time soon, there are other issues-- then there wouldn't be a problem. But.......

    Like I said my macro skills are rusty, what might that 'On Open' macro look like and could there pop-up a message saying 'This is a MS Word document!' ????

    Thanks again for the help!


  • Well, I misunderstood your original thought. I thought you meant put a macro in the Word doc that would be activated when the doc was opened in the wrong program.

    And I don't know anything about LWP programming either (don't want to know), so I will check in the Word help files and see if there is anything there.


    :)


  • If you don't have the support of management in this task, nothing you do will be a guaranteed success. Basically, any technological solution you come up can be circumvented by those who want to give you a hard time.

    If you can use a programmatic solution, and if WordPro supports a 'On open' macro, and if it can be stored in a Word document, program it to close the file!

    If you can use a VBA solution but can't finesse the above conditions, you could try the following...

    Add a page 1 to each document that says "You bozo, open this in Word."

    The real content of the document starts on page 2 and is formatted as 'invisible.' The VBA code will delete page 1 and make the rest of the content 'visible.'

    Of course, someone could open the document in Word and save the correctly formatted document elsewhere. Now, they can open that document in WordPro and then give you a hard time!

    A non-VBA solution might be to leave all pages visible with page 1 as above. Now, the people opening the document will have a visible warning about the correct program to use!







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