Digital Workshop

Having used Illumitas in the past, I have just upgraded to Opus Pro 6 to help our daughter turn an assesment document in word into an Opus presentation.
In word if you launch a template (.dot) it opens as a .doc - this is fine.
In Opus if you use the launch command to open a word template it opens it as a template (.dot).
Is there any way of launching it as a word doc - the user would then when saving have to call it by a new name - leaving the original template to be used again.
Hope the above makes sense.
Michael

I've tried a sample pub to do this using MSWord command line options, and it still brings it up like you said, as a template eventhough when you double-click on the .dot file in Explorer it brings it up as a new document.

Is there any way you could create a blank document based on the template you want to use and launch that instead?

If not, at least here's information on command line startup of Word from Microsoft. Maybe you can get some help from here.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210565

You should be able launch winword using /t templatename

Which will create a blank document based on the specified template.

Mack

Should is the operative word there

In fact this is what I did and it still brought it up as the .dot version and not the new document. It's got to be something set in Word, but if that's the case, it would be a problem that he'd have to overcome for every permutation of Word on everyone's system.

Yes I'm assuming that the switch words, but have a feeling that it might not on new version of word.

I don't think it's an office setting, but a DDE setting. By default double clicking a .dot file does not open it - it causes the new action to be run. If you examine the DDE settings for .dot, you will see that if the file is opened, which is what I assume Opus does with the launch command, then this really does Open it as a template.

Boy does this sound confusing...try looking at the DDE settings from the file type settings under Tools / Options / Filetypes in any standard window (not winword).

Be careful though, as changes to these settings CAN really mess up your ability to open word files!!!!

The only sure fire solution to this that i know of for newer versions of word is to launch the file via a command prompt. But this keeps the CMD window open until Word is closed.

Mack

Hi guys,
many thanks for your replies.
I think it is back to Plan A and making the .doc's read only so that the users have to do a "save as". It's not foolproof, especially as Opus doesn't appear to hide the files - I believe Illumitas saved the source files in the .ilm file, whereas Opus doesn't seem to, but renames the files in the publication directory. The old .ilm files could be several hundred mBs - whereas the new container is a few kB

I'm sure I'll back as this project gets more complicated.
Thanks again
Michael.

A Possilbe solution...

Instead of launch the file, your could use opus to create a copy. Prompt the user for a file name and location and simply use the file copy action.

Also, to embed a file into an opus publication add it as an additional resource. You'll need to select *.* type for doc / dot but they work as other types do.

Mack