Office 97 file type, actions generation on W2000 sp4

[bhogaj31]

Hi all

I've got a bit of a problem and don't know where to start with this one.

Environment :

Windows 2000 Sp4
Nt4 domain
Running Office 97, Sr1 and Sr2

These are the steps I got through to get the problem.

I open a previously created Word/Excel/PPT document which has a name that is meaningful to it, but when it opens in the app e.g. Word , it just has "document 1" in the blue border window.

I worked out why this was, so here are the steps :

From an explorer window

Select Tool,Options

Select the "File types" tab

Scroll down to "Doc" file extension and select it

Click "Advanced"

With the "Advanced" window you will see a set of actions assigned to the "Doc" file type.

The "New" action was at the very top of the list, but none were highlighted in bold.

Word was opening each previously created Word document as a new document because the "New" action was in the list, I deleted the "New" action and the same word document displayed with the correct name in the border of the word window.

I would like to know how I can delete this "New" action completely from all office file types, does anyone know???

 

[dk87]

Don't delete the New action. Add an OPEN action, and point it to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE" /n (or wherever your word app is). After you add it, click ok, then highlight OPEN and click the default button.

 

[bhogaj31]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

You wouldn't happen to know which registry key I can tweak to modify this, would you.

I should have mentioned that I am trying to automate this and would like to do what you suggested above by importing a reg file.

I just can't find the correct tree in the registry.

Regards

Jat

 

[dk87]

Best Guess:

HKCL\Applications\WINWORD.EXE\shell\Open\command

Set default string value to "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE" /n

 

[bhogaj31]

Thanks for your help "Dk87".

I found out a way that works for me, so here goes

Go to Regedit on Win2k running office 97
Go to "HKCR\Word.Document.8\shell\New"

Export this key path to a .reg file

The .reg file should be editted to look exactly like this

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\word.document.8\shell\New]
@="&New "

Notice the "-" inside the first square bracket. This will delete the "New" subkey in the above path.

With this deleted, the action "New" for any Word 97 document doesn't exist any more.

This may not be an ideal solution for everyone, but within an automated build it works well.

Thanks once again.

Peace

Jat