Hi all.

I have an application which inserts data from an oracle database into
bookmarks in word docs. Recently I have added various formula onto the
documents which perform calculations and formatting on the data in the
bookmarks.

My problem is that when the application is use in conjunction with Word 2003
the formula fields are updated and show the correct data when the document is
opened - in Word XP the formula fields show zeros and do not show the corrcet
data until I manually update the field.

Is this new functionality in Word 2003? Or is it a setting that is not
switched on in Word XP? I have duplicated exactly (as far as I can) settings
between both versions but to no avail.

Ta!
Elton

Hi Elton,

Hard to say, without knowing more about these formulae and your application
code. Are you explicitly using the .Update method in your code? I also don't
follow the series of events. Your code generates the documents... Then closes
them, and when they're opened later the fields aren't updated? Have you checked
the state of the fields when the documents are generated?

I have an application which inserts data from an oracle database into
bookmarks in word docs. Recently I have added various formula onto the
documents which perform calculations and formatting on the data in the
bookmarks.

My problem is that when the application is use in conjunction with Word 2003
the formula fields are updated and show the correct data when the document is
opened - in Word XP the formula fields show zeros and do not show the corrcet
data until I manually update the field.

Is this new functionality in Word 2003? Or is it a setting that is not
switched on in Word XP? I have duplicated exactly (as far as I can) settings
between both versions but to no avail.


Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Cindy, thanks for coming back to me.

Let me clarify:

A third party, bespoke application takes values from our enterprise database
and populates bookmarks in templates that our company have created.

In one template I need to do a simple calculation, multiplying two of the
bookmarks together... A formula field.

When I open the document, dependant on which version of Word the third party
application has used to create the document, the field will be in one of two
states: "0.00" ie not updated OR showing the correct value.

It would seem to me that Word 2003 has new functionality over Word XP which
automatically updates formula fields. I just need clarification of this.

Thanks!

Hi ?B?RWx0b24gSHVycmVsbA==?=,

A third party, bespoke application takes values from our enterprise database
and populates bookmarks in templates that our company have created.

In one template I need to do a simple calculation, multiplying two of the
bookmarks together... A formula field.

When I open the document, dependant on which version of Word the third party
application has used to create the document, the field will be in one of two
states: "0.00" ie not updated OR showing the correct value.

It would seem to me that Word 2003 has new functionality over Word XP which
automatically updates formula fields. I just need clarification of this.

To my knowledge, it does not. However, MS may have changed something in the
background as to which fields are updated when a document is opened - the last
time this list was actually documented was in 2000

"WD97: Fields Updated When Document Repaginated"
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=89953

If you need any confirmation beyond your own (and/or others') observations, I'm
afraid you'll need to contact (and pay for) MS Support.

If it's important/desirable that all documents open with updated formulas, I'd
ask the third-party to add one line of code to their program, just before the
code that saves and closes the document:
ActiveDocument.Fields.Update

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or reply
in the newsgroup and not by e-mail :-)

Damn .. the update to their code was the only thing I could come up with.
Thanks for your help Cindy.