Office 97 to Office XP upgrade

[GoodOmens]

I would appreciate any suggestions on best practices or things to watch for with this upgrade, specifically with regard to macros.

My firm has been working in Word 97 for a number of years now and we have created a number of custom macros over the years, shared throughout the firm by putting two dot files in the Microsoft Office/ Office/ Startup folder. Now we are upgrading to XP. We have tested these macros in XP and the majority of them still work correctly, once you work through the security issues. We have (hopefully!) found a deployment solution for the initial imaging of the new machines.

My major concern now is future upgrades to the macros.
[ul][li]Will creating Add-Ins rather than placing Dot files in the Startup folder solve any security issues? [/li]
[li]Are Add-ins easier to update? The Startup folder is in each profile directory in XP, which can be a problem for file replacement. [/li]
[li]Are there other benefits to add-ins/COM files? [/li]
[li]Any suggestions on the best place to start learning the differences? [/li][/ul]
We've only had an XP machine in the office for a few days so I am just starting to learn all of this.

Thanks for any help you can offer and please forgive the double posting if you also subscribe to the 'Microsoft: Office. newsgroup

 

[CubeE101]

try digging through here...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...tml/deovrWorkingWithMicrosoftExcelObjects.asp

Sometimes... the BASIC things in life are the best...

or at least the most fun ;-)
-Josh Stribling

 

[GoodOmens]

Thanks CubeE101. I have gone through enough of these files to answer my initial questions - where to put the Dot files and how to get the macros to work without warnings, especially the ones that access the Outlook address book. It is all just a bit overwhelming compared to the simplicity of programming VBA for Word 97!

 

[CubeE101]

hmm... souldn't be that different...
I haven't noticed much of a change (code wise) as for the warnings... you need to make a self signed certificate using selfsign.exe (I think)
Try this...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnoxpta/html/odc_dsvba.asp

I saw a thread on it in ONE of the VB forums... VB5/6, VBA, or VBScript
Personally I usually turn off the Macro Warnings on my PCs...
I usually don't open word files from the web or emails... unless someone I work with tells me they are sending me one...
Do you have regular VB (not VBA)
if not, you might consider it... it can unlock a world of things not available in macros...
Don't get me wrong... I still love VBA... But I also like being able to click a button or Icon and Pull up Word, Excel, Access, SolidWorks, etc... or whatever else you work with and open files for you, do what you need to do, and be able to share data back and forth between them... AND be able to do all of it Transparently in the background so you don't have to see the App Windows popping up, changing, and closing...
I would definitly check into it.
Good Luck Sometimes... the BASIC things in life are the best...

or at least the most fun ;-)
-Josh Stribling