Hello,

I have a set of folders which share identical word files (questionnaires) and what I want is for me to complete one of the questionnaires and for the others to duplicate the changes without the need of copy pasting them to each folder individually.

The necessity of this is born from the need to eradicate getting one of the questionnaire and copy pasting it to each separate folder that shares the same questionnaire. There are multiple folders, and although they share very different files, they all have the same questionnaire buried somewhere in the subfolders.

My first thought was to remake all questionnaires to an Excel file, which will interconnect all shared user changeable fields to all questionnaires. However, considering the extensive work this needs, I am guessing whether this is the most appropriate and efficient method of doing this.

I hope someone can enlighten me with some technical guidance or useful suggestions. Thanks to everyone in advance!

You can do this via INCLUDETEXT fields. First, create and save a stand-alone questionnaire document. Then open the first target document and navigate to the questionnaire portion. Delete the existing questionnaire, then insert an INCLUDETEXT field via Insert|Quick Parts|Field, supplying the full path and name, with \\ for the path separators. Your documents will now be linked. You can copy the INCLUDETEXT field from this document and paste it into the others, thus linking them also. From now on, any changes to your questionnaire document will be reflected in each of the target documents.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you for your response!

This seemed to have worked, but whenever I update the main file the others do not seem to update the edited fields. Therefore, when I check one questionnaire or complete a field, the completed field does not transfer to the others.

Another problem this method may have is that it may not work when moved to another folder or computer. The links need to work when the main file is moved from "C:\Users\XX\Documents\WORK STATION\Personal Work\Audit Folder" to "C:\Users\YY\Documents\Desktop\Audit Folder".

EDIT: They do update if I manually do so, which kind of beats the purpose - I need to know the file will automatically update for whoever opens it, instantly, without the need of special guidance.

Go to File|Options|Advanced>General and check the 'update automatic links at open' option. Each user should do this, as it's a Word setting, not a document setting.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

How about a macro, shouldn't it work for everyone?

Also, the files that absorb the data from the main file have everything underlined in red (as if they have grammar errors) and are all highlighted gray (as if they are selected) greatly impairing readability. Can I fix this?

Yes, you could use a macro, but:
a) why do so when Word has the functionality of INCLUDETEXT fields built in;
b) that would be a lot more work to set up and maintain; and
b) who's going to maintain it?

As for the underlining & shading, that suggests:
a) something odd about your language settings; and
b) you have Word's field shading option set to 'when selected' (and the insertion point is in the field), or 'always'.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks for everything.

A)

The macro would serve the purpose of auto-updating and auto-saving the links for convenience purposes, e.g.:

Sub AutoOpen()
With Options
.UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
.UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
End With
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
End Sub

Source: http://word.tips.net/T000422_Automat...and_Links.html

Shouldn't it work for all users? What kind of maintenance will it need?

B)

My language settings will be the same across all the computers that will use these folders, so I do not really know what to change here. Also, nothing is underlined, everything is marked as mispelled unless I manually update the links twice, then, both the gray field shading and underlining disappear until I select anything on the document.

Is it possible to make it so the document appears normally on other users? Me disabling something personally and not seeing it, while others do, does not help with compatibility across platforms.

It would have been helpful had you said what you wanted the macro to do. Given the lack of context, I understood you to want a macro to update the document content, not just the fields. In any event, your macro:
a) would have to be added to either the document template (assuming all documents use the same template; otherwise to multiple templates) or to every one of the documents, introducing macro security issues; and
b) will not do the same as checking the 'update automatic links at open' option, which only needs to be done once, not every time a document is opened.
With the 'update automatic links at open' option checked, that shouldn't be necessary. Have you tried checking it, then closing & re-opening one of the target documents?
You can't control how anyone else sees the document - that depends on how they have Word configured.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I know very little about macros and I am failing to understand what you just said, I will need to research on it. However, security it not an issue, all files are distributed to be individually worked on and remain unshared until printed by the users themselves.


Changes may occur on the primary document over the course of time, so the linked ones need to be updated as soon as opened (it would have been delightful if they documents could update silently, without the need of opening them, but I suppose this is impossible).

This is not an option, by default I have it off, and others do as well, I need compatibilty and convenience, so the macro is necessary.

It beats the purpose if I tell users: Do A, and B, and C, and D, and then the documents will play nicely.

We partially can assuming completely default settings across all platforms. As far as I can see although the macro updates the fields, the underlining and field shading remains. However, if I manually select "Update Fields" both the field shading and the underlining go away unless if I click somewhere on the document. Don't you think a macro can be created that updates similarly to a manual field update so that the document looks "clean" on launch?

Which is precisely what the 'update automatic links at open' option does.

Already, though, you're proposing to run a macro every time users open a document (and you're not even sure yet how many documents/templates you'll need to add the macro to), to both set the 'UpdateFieldsAtPrint' and 'UpdateLinksAtPrint' options - each of which also only need doing once... Given that setting the 'update automatic links at open' option is something one ever only needs to do once, your concerns are way out of proportion to what's involved IMHO.

There is nothing about the macro you posted that would cause field shading to display - or not - and whether something can be done about it depends on the cause (which I'm not aware of).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I am really not sure. If there is no other way, and this is it, I will research more on what you have said - Maybe use something other than "INCLUDETEXT"? Another similar command?

In any case, thank you for taking your time and gave me advice on this!

EDIT: The major issue I initially stated withstands, keeping all the files in the same folder is not enough, the same exact path is needed; so everything is pretty much unusable unless there is a way to solve it.

You could use a LINK field, but the results would be much the same. The LINK field also requires more parameters.

As for the paths, the only one that is fixed is the one to the source file - you can move the target files around as much as you like, provided they can retain access to the source file.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thank you for further informing me.

You are correct, the LINK option (including all its sub-settings) either provides the exact same result or an even worse one.

The paths are problematic in the following sense: all files (questioners etc.) are in the same folder, for example the "Audit Folder". The Audit Folder is on my desktop. However, moving it to another desktop, all links break down since the changed "user" path is not something that is automatically re-complied.

This is highly problematic because this issue cannot be solved by simply having the Audit Folder on C:\. The Audit Folder will exist on multiple entity subfolders, for example: Company A\ Audit Folder - Company B\ Audit Folder etcetera.

If I cannot solve this type of compliance issue, there is no point in anything.

To see how to implement relative paths in Word, check out the solution I've posted at:
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/sho...External-Files

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]