Word 2003 / 2007 Compatibility Issue

Gordon Bentley-Mix

This might be a question better suited for the General forum (which I've
cross-posted to - I think), but the issue is related to documents created
from templates that I've coded so I'm posting in the Word Programming forum
as well.

Here's the situation: I've created a series of templates using Word 2003.
These templates have protected and unprotected sections in them (forms
protection). The client has standardised on Word 2003 across the
organisation, but there are a couple of "high-ranking interested parties"
(members of the Board) who are running Word 2007. I've been told - but have
yet to see proof - that when documents created from my templates are opened
in Word 2007 only the content in the protected area/s of the document is
displayed; the unprotected sections are blank. ~cue spooky music~

Unfortunately I don't have a copy of Word 2007 to test with, and the persons
reporting the problem are not exactly local, so I'm unable to reproduce the
problem myself. However, before I go too much further with chasing this issue
(which I'm tempted to resolve by saying it's out of scope since the contract
was to develop templates for use in the _standard_ environment), I'd like to
know if anybody else has encountered this problem.

--
Cheers!
Gordon
The Kiwi Koder

Uninvited email contact will be marked as SPAM and ignored. Please post all
follow-ups to the newsgroup.

Stefan Blom

As far as I know, there is no general problem in Word 2007 that involves
protected documents and invisible text, if that's what you are asking.

The first thing to check when text is invisible is if it has been
inadvertently formatted as hidden (but you've probably already considered
this).

If you believe that the document(s) and template(s) could be corrupt, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


"Gordon Bentley-Mix" wrote:

> This might be a question better suited for the General forum (which I've
> cross-posted to - I think), but the issue is related to documents created
> from templates that I've coded so I'm posting in the Word Programming forum
> as well.
>
> Here's the situation: I've created a series of templates using Word 2003.
> These templates have protected and unprotected sections in them (forms
> protection). The client has standardised on Word 2003 across the
> organisation, but there are a couple of "high-ranking interested parties"
> (members of the Board) who are running Word 2007. I've been told - but have
> yet to see proof - that when documents created from my templates are opened
> in Word 2007 only the content in the protected area/s of the document is
> displayed; the unprotected sections are blank. ~cue spooky music~
>
> Unfortunately I don't have a copy of Word 2007 to test with, and the persons
> reporting the problem are not exactly local, so I'm unable to reproduce the
> problem myself. However, before I go too much further with chasing this issue
> (which I'm tempted to resolve by saying it's out of scope since the contract
> was to develop templates for use in the _standard_ environment), I'd like to
> know if anybody else has encountered this problem.
>
> --
> Cheers!
> Gordon
> The Kiwi Koder
>
> Uninvited email contact will be marked as SPAM and ignored. Please post all
> follow-ups to the newsgroup.

Gordon Bentley-Mix

Stefan,

Thanks for the input. There are some parts of the documents that do have
hidden text in them but it's all in the protected sections, which apparently
display OK. However, I'm pretty sure the text in the unprotected sections
isn't hidden or it wouldn't show up when the docs are opened in Word 2003. I
also don't think the template/s or document/s are corrupt for the same
reason: they work find in 2003.

I've searched both Google and Microsoft for any info that might be even
remotely related, and all I've found (in addition to my own post) is a lot of
spin from MS saying that it'll all be fine and instructions on how to open
2007 docs in 2003, which is not my issue. However, there are a few references
to the 2003 features that are lost or changed when opening 2003 docs in 2007,
so I suspect that there really is a problem but it just isn't explained very
well. For example, one KBA says that heading and body fonts are converted to
static text - whatever that means...

The only thing I can think of is that I've set up a special style for the
paragraphs for the continuous section breaks that uses hidden font. Maybe in
the 'conversion to static text', the hidden attribute of this font is being
applied to all of the text between the section breaks - and then turned off
again at the next section break (which would explain why the protected
sections display OK). Curiouser and curiouser.

In any case, I've decided to tell the client that this whole thing is
waaaaay out of scope and if they want it resolved they'll have to put
together a new project around it. I don't believe the problem is with my
templates; I believe it's a problem in Word 2007 - and I haven't been
contracted (yet) to resolve problems like that. And if I do eventually figure
it out, I'll make sure to post the answer so everyone can benefit.
--
Cheers!
Gordon

Uninvited email contact will be marked as SPAM and ignored. Please post all
follow-ups to the newsgroup.


"Stefan Blom" wrote:

> As far as I know, there is no general problem in Word 2007 that involves
> protected documents and invisible text, if that's what you are asking.
>
> The first thing to check when text is invisible is if it has been
> inadvertently formatted as hidden (but you've probably already considered
> this).
>
> If you believe that the document(s) and template(s) could be corrupt, see
> http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/CorruptDoc.htm.
>
> --
> Stefan Blom
> Microsoft Word MVP
>
>
> "Gordon Bentley-Mix" wrote:
>
> > This might be a question better suited for the General forum (which I've
> > cross-posted to - I think), but the issue is related to documents created
> > from templates that I've coded so I'm posting in the Word Programming forum
> > as well.
> >
> > Here's the situation: I've created a series of templates using Word 2003.
> > These templates have protected and unprotected sections in them (forms
> > protection). The client has standardised on Word 2003 across the
> > organisation, but there are a couple of "high-ranking interested parties"
> > (members of the Board) who are running Word 2007. I've been told - but have
> > yet to see proof - that when documents created from my templates are opened
> > in Word 2007 only the content in the protected area/s of the document is
> > displayed; the unprotected sections are blank. ~cue spooky music~
> >
> > Unfortunately I don't have a copy of Word 2007 to test with, and the persons
> > reporting the problem are not exactly local, so I'm unable to reproduce the
> > problem myself. However, before I go too much further with chasing this issue
> > (which I'm tempted to resolve by saying it's out of scope since the contract
> > was to develop templates for use in the _standard_ environment), I'd like to
> > know if anybody else has encountered this problem.
> >
> > --
> > Cheers!
> > Gordon
> > The Kiwi Koder
> >
> > Uninvited email contact will be marked as SPAM and ignored. Please post all
> > follow-ups to the newsgroup.