[Jay Freedman]

You can try submitting a nastygram through
https://feedback.office.microsoft.co...ice2007&scrx=1.
I don't know whether that goes to the same people who appear to be ignoring us.
I have already added your post to the comments section of the existing report on
the hotfix. I'll look for other ways to escalate the problem and at least get a
response.

On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:38:01 -0700, ThirtySix Software
wrote:

Suzanne/Jay - Thanks for the reply.

This really sucks, as we have add-ins that we have developed that rely on
doc variables for data storage. Any recommendations for how we can push MS on
this? Is there a defect logged out there somewhere that we can chime in on,
as this will impact all of our clients.


"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Yes, it is known -- at least out here in the world outside the Microsoft campus.

We reported this bug last month when the suspect part of the update was
available only as a hotfix (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969961). That report
is still open and unacknowledged. Despite that report, the hotfix evidently was
rolled into the security update's general release.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all
may benefit.

On Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:26:01 -0700, ThirtySix Software ThirtySix
wrote:

KB969604 for Word 2007 was released on 6/8 and was installed on my machine a
couple days ago. Since then, any time I save a document in Word 2007, any
document variables in the document become corrupt. If I uninstall KB969604
then the problem goes away. When I reinstall KB969604 the problem comes back.

With KB969604 uninstalled, doc variables are properly saved in the
settings.xml file as below:

w:docVarsw:docVar w:name="MyVar" w:val="This is a test value for a
variable"//w:docVars

However, with KB969604 installed, doc variables become corrupted when saved.
For example:

w:docVarsw:docVar w:name="MyVar"
w:val="d???_?????????Ä?????????????"//w:docVars

We've been able to reproduce this on multiple machines.

You can use the steps below to reproduce this:

* See if this KB is installed (it was released on 6/8) ... if not, it can be
installed from he

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

* Open a Word 2007 doc and create a doc variable ... you can do this by
creating a simple macro from the Developer tab, then execute the macro ...
the macro just needs to be this:

Sub Macro1()
ActiveDocument.Variables.Add Name:="MyVar", Value:="This is a test value
for a variable"
End Sub

* Save and close your doc ... change the file extension to "zip" and unzip
it ... open the "~/word/settings.xml" file and see if your variable is valid
or not.

* If it's corrupted, then uninstall the KB from Add/Remove programs (make
sure the "Show updates" checkbox is selected at the top of the dialog).

* Repeat the above steps with a new doc and see if your variable is corrupted.

If this is a defect, then it's a major one as all doc variables become
corrupted on save. Note that the variables only become corrupted on save ...
in memory, the variables are fine ... it's only when the docx is written out
that they become corrupted.

Can others reproduce this?