Saving Templates using Act 10.0 and Word 2007

[sjp]

I have been using Act 10.0 for a few months now on 2 computers and with no problems.  The word processors I had been using were Word 2002 on one computer and Word 2003 on the other system.  Last week I upgraded both computers to Word 2007.  The problem I am now having is when I bring-up a template to modify or try to create a new template I cannot save the templates in the "adt formt" used by Act"-- I can only save the templates in Word formats.  I see Act in the Plug-in tab in Word.  Any ideas on how to fix this problem?

[GLComputing]

I haven't tried an Office upgrade when ACT! is installed, but ACT! only see's Office and links to it when ACT! is installed.

You may need to uninstall and reinstall ACT!

Also make sure you patch to ACT! 10.01

[rgh1955]

sjp, did you get any answers to your ACT Word 2007 template problem of not being able to save in an .adt format? Thanks rgh1955

[act_enthusiast]

sjp,

Do make sure that you reinstall ACT! 2008 first.  Once that is done, go into ACT! and do a Write > Edit Template.  Pick a template you would like to edit, then in Word 2007 click to do a save-as and pick Word Template as the type.  In the filename text box type the default filename should appear highlighted.  Type a double quote, then the template name you would like then enter the dot-ADT extension, then a double quote.  For example it should look literally like "MyTempate.ADT".  Including the double quotes around the filename, the dot then the ADT extension.  This forces the filename to be exactly what you want.  ADT does not appear as a drop-down filetype in Word 2007.

[mrkboc]

I'm using ACT 2009 and have the same problem. Using the quotes works but not sure why it is required.

[act_enthusiast]

1. Make sure you are saving the template in the templates folder for your database

2. If you don't want to use double quotes around the filename when saving the template

    e.g. "template-name.adt"

    (this forces word to use your exact filename instead of appending the default word

     document template extension .dotx)

then:

a. Save the template specifying Word Template as the file type e.g. template-name

or template-name.dotx

Also, specify the destination location to be the templates folder for your database.

Word will save the file as template-name.dotx

b. Navigate to the templates folder and rename the template you just saved with a .dotx

    extension to an .adt extension e.g. template-name.adt

Using the double quotes saves the second step but use whichever is easier.

You will not find an .ADT Document Save file type in Word 2007.  It may be nicer if it was there

as an option but it's not needed.  Submit a feature request if you feel strongly enough about it.

sjp - if you installed a newer version of office after ACT! was installed then it is suggested that

you reinstall ACT! 2008 so that the linkages get set correctly with Office 2007 as they were with

the older office versions you had installed.

[btoman]

Oh this is depressing.   We have Sage Premium 2008 (10.0) (ST Edition) Version 10.0.3.182, Hotfix 1, and we recently(!) moved to Office 2007.  Saving templates has been a nightmare..  The fix described above and in the KB article, of saving-as with quotes and the adt extension, do not reliably work and we have wasted tons of time.  Even if you follow the procedure, the template does not always save, and worse, sometimes is there, but has no content and is 0 KB in size.  Argh.

We finally caved in and started using the ACT word processor for doing mail merge templates.   This seems to work fine so far.  The only bug we have found so far is that if you copy/paste a URL into the template, it does not appear in mail merged emails sent using Outlook 2007.  However if you use the ACT word processor's Insert >> hyperlink function, the URL  appears in the resulting email.   

I recommend not following the quotes+extension fix as it is not reliable, and the essence of any business process is reliability.

I was hoping that with ACT 2010 this issue would have been fixed.  But based on this chain, it is not.   Hence, depression.

 Here is a question, the answer to which would give me some peace.

Does anybody know what happened such that Sage lost the ability to reliably make templates using Word?  I imagine it has something to do with the xml formats Microsoft introduced in 2007... but there is no board posting or KB article that I have seen that explains this.    What makes this such a dismal failure of integration?

Also does anybody know if the ACT word processor in ACT 2010 is reliable for doing Outlook mail merges with Outlook 2007 (and now Outlook 2010)?   We may be upgrading our ACT soon and I would rather not have to go through all the experimentation again.

Thanks