> The creativity and productivity angles Graham referred to have more to do
> with customizing toolbars, menus, etc. Presumably this could be done with a
> global add-in in each user's Startup folder, but that requires user
> education, as most will save customizations to Normal.dot (the default), and
> they will then be wiped out each time they log on.
>
> --
> Suzanne S. Barnhill
> Microsoft MVP (Word)
> Words into Type
> Fairhope, Alabama USA
>
http://word.mvps.org>
> "Jess" <Jess[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:92DE7758-909E-488B-81F8-126387A5A6B4[ at ]microsoft.com...
> > Hi Graham
> >
> > I do agree with you, that it should not be forced, however it has been a
> > decision made from the top! (as the usual story goes..) we can only wait
> > and
> > see what other problems arise out of replacing normal.dot on everyone's
> > machine. But we are not completely restricting user's creativity or
> > productivity. The font can be changed and they can remove the footer if
> > they
> > wish.
> >
> > However, I do like your idea at prompting users durign the File Save/Save
> > as
> > command. I will test it and see how it goes. I can only see 1 issue with
> > this, is that when the footer is added it will cause problems to the
> > margins
> > the user has set, making words overlap to other pages. (especially if the
> > file location is in several folders, which causes the footer to go over 2
> > or
> > 3 lines..)
> >
> > Thanks very much for your reply.
> >
> > Has any used GP to distribute customised normal.dot to your org?
> >
> > "Graham Mayor" wrote:
> >
> >> I would imagine that it would be extremely irritating to be employed as a
> >> Word user in your organisation. Forcing users to work in this way is
> >> stifling to creativity and productivity, and adding a footer to the
> >> normal
> >> template will ruin the possibility of using Word to create labels. This
> >> is
> >> not the way the normal template is supposed to be used - though sadly
> >> many
> >> organisations do use it in this manner ... and worse :(.
> >>
> >> If you want users to adopt company standards then create document
> >> templates
> >> and train the users to use those document templates for the types of
> >> documents they apply to. Thus you can maintain a handful of standard
> >> templates which the users are not going to screw up, stored at a shared
> >> server location. The normal template can then be used as the user
> >> personalisation tool it was always intended to be.
> >>
> >> If it was only the footer issue that was bothering you then you could
> >> create
> >> macros in an add-in template to intercept the FileSave and FileSaveAs
> >> command and provide the option to add the footer to the document. - or
> >> even
> >> give the users a toolbar button to add the footer eg something along the
> >> lines of:
> >>
> >> Sub AddfNameToFooter()
> >> Dim oSection As Section
> >> Dim oFooter As HeaderFooter
> >> Dim oRng As Range
> >> Dim sQuery As String
> >> If Len(ActiveDocument.Path) = 0 Then
> >> ActiveDocument.Save
> >> End If
> >> sQuery = MsgBox("Add filename to footer?", vbYesNo, "Filename")
> >> If sQuery = vbYes Then
> >> For Each oSection In ActiveDocument.Sections
> >> For Each oFooter In oSection.Footers
> >> If oFooter.Exists Then
> >> Set oRng = oFooter.Range
> >> With oRng
> >> .Fields.Add oRng, wdFieldFileName, "\p"
> >> .Font.name = "Arial"
> >> .Font.Size = "10"
> >> .Paragraphs.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphRight
> >> .Fields.Update
> >> End With
> >> End If
> >> Next oFooter
> >> Next oSection
> >> ActiveDocument.Save
> >> End If
> >> End sub
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
> >> Graham Mayor - Word MVP
> >>
> >> My web site www.gmayor.com
> >> Word MVP web site
http://word.mvps.org> >> <>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
> >>
> >> Jess wrote:
> >> > I was wondering if I gave you a scenario what would be the best
> >> > solution?
> >> >
> >> > Aim: Our organisation has had difficulty with keeping record of what
> >> > document came from where after being printed. Their solution was to
> >> > ensure that everyone's normal.dot included a footer stating the
> >> > location and name of the document.
> >> >
> >> > Solution: Already having been implemented, we created a customised
> >> > normal.dot we were happy with (font Arial size 10, and a footer with
> >> > folder location and document name in size 8 at the bottom) including
> >> > the auto text and other macros available in the normal.dot. This
> >> > version was then copied to a server. At user logon a script is run
> >> > that copies the normal.dot from the server in to the users
> >> > application data and forces them to use the company normal.dot
> >> >
> >> > This has worked overall, but has proven not to be the grand solution
> >> > due to the issues faced below:
> >> > 1.) Major problem: If a user customises the toolbar, or adds their own
> >> > Auto-text to their liking, it is removed once they logoff or restart.
> >> > Proving to be extremely frustrating for avid users.
> >> > 2.) Minor problem: For the customised normal.dot, where a toolbar is
> >> > in view already, it is not ticked on the Toolbars list. If we tick
> >> > it, we get two of these kinds of toolbars. (this is no big deal, but
> >> > also not ideal). We are sure this can be rectified by editing the
> >> > Normal.dot more appropriately next time.
> >> >
> >> > We can overcome Major problem #1 by altering our VBScript to tell if
> >> > the normal.dot file is dated a certain date, not to overwrite, thus
> >> > keeping the user's customised version in tact at next logon, but this
> >> > is not ideal and we are sure there is a better way of ensuring the
> >> > Company's need of the footer and fonts in the normal.dot for all
> >> > existing and new users logging on to machines.
> >> >
> >> > I have searched for 'customising global.dot' or 'customising
> >> > normal.dot globally' but I cannot find a solution. I have also looked
> >> > in to the Office 2003 Administrative template policies service pack 3
> >> > - but I cannot see where I can set a footer and default font and font
> >> > size within the word template.
> >> >
> >> > Once we do find a solution that works globally, my only concern is
> >> > what to do in the event the normal.dot template becomes corrupt, what
> >> > the options are for each user. It would be great to have our
> >> > customised normal.dot to be automatically created when the older one
> >> > becomes corrupt, but not sure if Microsoft's program can be
> >> > configured in such a way.
> >> >
> >> > We are currently working with MS Office 2003 service pack 3, but will
> >> > be upgrading in a year's time and will need to keep our eyes open for
> >> > the fix in the next version we deploy (likely to be Office 2007/8)
> >> >
> >> > I look forward to any hints or tips or solutions you can provide, in
> >> > the mean time I will keep looking around and testing out other
> >> > solutions.
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
>
>