#WinWord Macro/Template
9 messages in this thread
David –
Downloaded your WinWord template today and just finished looking through the
Help file – very slick! I really think it looks like a great piece of work.
However, my book.exe is dated 2/1/93, so I guess I can't use it, huh? I could
have asked OKNA to send me the 9/1/93 files, but 4.1b is so close, I figured
what the heck. Anyway, nice job. Do you have any idea what (if any) differences
there will be between your macro and the one that will be included with 4.1b?
Scott
Scott
I agree; it will probably be quicker to wait for the 4.1b patch than have Okna
send you the 4.0c/4.1a disks. I'm glad you liked the help file, though. It
took me longer to put that together than to write the WinWord macro!
What will be the difference between my macro and the one(s) provided by Okna in
4.1b? I have to answer that in two ways: while I am not covered by a
non-disclosure agreement, if I have seen anything that Okna is working on, I
would feel honor bound to treat it as confidential, and would therefore feel
unable to comment. However, it had been mentioned in this forum that at least
one macro to be provided by Okna will run mail merges in WinWord, WPWin and Ami
Pro based on DTS data. Aside from that, I think I can say that I would not
seek to duplicate or preempt anything Okna is working on, any more than they
would duplicate anything I am working on (assuming they think it's any good)
and that anything I'm working on is meant to complement the features of any
shipping version of DTS.
Hope this helps.
David
David,
PMFJI, my book exe file is dated 8-20-93. My version is 4.0C. Is your macro
compatible with that file date? If memory serves, the file is the same as the
9-1-93 but the dates were different depending on if you downloaded it from the
forum or was mailed by Okna.
Kevin in Woodinville, WA at 17:56:36 on 11-Oct-94
Kevin
You're quite right, the August 20 '93 version of BOOK.EXE will work perfectly.
I used the September 1 '93 date rather than the August 20 date as a minimum
requirement as the August version had been described to me as a very late beta;
I hadn't realized that it had ever been formally shipped.
If you're wondering, the reason earlier reasons are incompatible with the macro
is because the macro makes somewhere in the region of 18 different DDE calls to
BOOK.EXE, and only BOOK.EXEs after the dates mentioned include all the DDE
capabilities required. The only feedback I have ever had in the past five
months concerning either version (WinWord or WordPerfect) not working is when
it is used in conjunction with a BOOK.EXE dated earlier than the dates
indicated, which is why I stress the date.
Hope this helps, and I hope you like the macro.
David
David,
Thanks for the info. I'll give it a try tomorrow. If the macro is as well
thought out as the help file, I'm in business.
Kevin in Woodinville, WA at 18:08:50 on 12-Oct-94
Kevin
I certainly hope the macro's as good as the help file.<g> Please let me know
what you think, positive and negative, as I'm currently working on an upgrade.
(It/they will be released once I've got my hands on WinWord 6.0c, DTS 4.1b and
WPWin 6.1.)
David
David,
Your template is wonderful. And it seems to work with a DTS version 4.0c dated
8-1-93, which is what I have. (I seem to recall this might have been an upgrade
patch that I got off of the forum here.
Just a question: does your macro have to be launched from its own template (as
opposed to residing in Normal.Dot? I ask because I have templates design to
predefine different paper sizes, styles, etc. I have already altered the
default page size in your template to European A4, but it would be more
versatile if the macro could be launched from within an already opened
document.
-Herb Nestler 13-Oct-94 at 21:00 CET (Germany)
Herb
I did make the macro capable of being run alone, in an open document, although
I had hoped no one would try it as the standalone capabilities are not as
complete as I'd like them to be (well, they're not as good as the WordPerfect
version due to limitations in WordBasic). That said, here's what to do and
what happens:
Copy DTSWWDDE (Macro), dtswwddeico (AutoText) and all Styles beginning with DTS
(i.e., DTSDate) to Normal.Dot.
When you run the macro, the macro starts placing its data at the very end of
whatever text is in the document. So if there is just a single line or three
pages of text in your document, the macro places its data after it. (If your
existing documents have headers and date text or fields, you should turn off
the Include Header and Include Date Text options in the macro's "Defaults"
dialog box.)
This is how it's supposed to work, and how it should work. To be honest I
haven't done a lot of testing with it as a standalone, but it was certainly my
intention that it should work in this way. The only suggestion I would make is
to add two Enters after whatever text is in your document, so that the spacing
is correct and paragraph styles are not interferred with, etc.
The specific DDE code that has to be available in BOOK.EXE is BringOnTop(),
which was only added in the August/September '93 releases. I erred on the side
of caution with the date I gave in the help file, but I'm glad it works for
you, whatever the date of your BOOK.EXE!
Also, thank you for the kind words about the macro. The new version, due out
next month, is a great improvement over the current version, and should be
better able to handle being run as a standalone, although as I say, the current
version isn't bad in this regard.
Hope this helps.
David
P.S. BTW, the template can be copied and renamed any number of times, so you
can create default templates to your own design, and AutoRun the macro when a
new document is based on any one of the templates. The next version of the
template/macro will have a dummy template that exists only to run the macro
which will probably be stored in Normal.Dot; this is obviously better as the
macro only exists in one place on disk.
David,
I followed your advice and had no trouble whatsoever incorporating the
functions of DTSWWDDE into my Normal template. My first efforts at using it
have gone flawlessly and it adds a wonderful functionality to DTS. I had been
using a little macro I created which takes the basic approach of yours, but
much more crudely and without the flexibility to modify the record before
pasting it into the document. I simply shelled out to DTS, allowed myself to
copy a predefined business or home record to the clipboard using the
functionality defined in DTS and then pasted the clipboard back into WinWord
when DTS was closed. Your dialog box and default capabilities are quite
elegant.
I'll keep you informed if I see any hitches. I'll especially be watching for
things specially required by international correspondence. Konstantin has heard
from me a good deal in the past about the American ethnocentricity of DTS
(despite his nationality!).
>> standalone capabilities are not as complete as I'd like them to be
<<
I am curious about that statement because I don't observe any limitations or
lost functionality by running the macro from within Normal.Dot. What am I
overlooking?
BTW, I find your bio quite interesting. I am a former producer and writer of
broadcast and live "industrial theatre" shows. Now I am working primarily as a
trainer and writer for business journals.
Thanks again immensely for your contributed work!
Best,
-Herb Nestler 16-Oct-94 at 17:07 CET (Germany)