Conference utrop1::linkworks_v3

2209.0. "Office97 and LinkWorks - help needed!" by OSL09::BJARNE (endless loop (n). See LOOP, ENDLESS.) Mon Apr 28 1997 11:07

Hi!

I visited a customer on friday, they wanted to integrate Office97 into 
LinkWorks. 
    
Quite a number of problems did show up! The set of applications in Microsoft
Office has always been important tools for many LinkWorks sites, what is 
our policy when new versions of Microsoft Office hit the street?

	The LinkWorks Client is V3.0.8 (as of 16.12.1996, Server is Alpha 
	OpenVMS V3.0.8, the October 1996-version. (Some files are from 
    	18-OCT-1996, some are from 24-OCT-1996).

Here is a list of what we found. Any input on how we can go along is
appreciated. The customer has created tools for reading and updating Word 
and Excel documents (new tools, new formats, new master documents). 
Everything seems OK when the user edit their documents - at least the correct
tools are started. The problem is all the funny things that happen when we 
try to edit documents, and especially when we create links between them.

1. Word97: We edit a document, click on Update (or select Update from
the menu), some more editing, some more Updates. When we select
"Close & Return to LinkWorks "testdok"" from the File Menu, LinkWorks
says: "Do you want to save...". But we didn't do any changes in the
document since our last Update! This is confusing for the end users.
What we found out is that our Updates during editing updates the
.UPD file on the server (the copy, used during editing). The original
file on the server pool is NOT UPDATED before we do a "Close & Return..."
or an Exit from the File Menu. Is this expected behaviour?

2. Word97: Setting up links between Word documents is an easy task, but
inside LinkWorks it seems to be rather difficult to handle links.
Say we create links from DOK1 to DOK2. If we edit both those documents,
"Close & Return..." DOK1, LinkWorks don't ask us if we want to save
changes. Funny. The DOK1 document is still locked, even after we have 
closed it. The DOK1 document isn'yt stored before we also Close DOK2.
Strange.
Some times we have seen TWO documents when we edit DOK2, the other
document being DOK1. Very strange. 

3. Excel97: The Release Notes says that OLE Linking doesn't work for
Excel and LinkWorks V3.0.8. This customer relies heavily on linking
between spreadsheets, so this is a rather hot issue. They want to get
rid of Lotus 1-2-3.

Is this problem due to the concurrency? The fact that you have a temporary
file on the server? The link is created when you edit the copy file 
(the .UPD file), but when we try to read the document with
the link, we get an error message. Is this a LinkWorks problem? Microsoft?
(I would guess so, as it is mentioned in the Release Notes.

Can we expect this to be fixed?

4. Excel97: When we edit an Excel spreadsheet and do a "Close & Return to 
LinkWorks "ourspreadsheet"", Excel exits! (See also note 2182.2, and read 
that Word behave different).

5. Excel97: The customer wants to go from Lotus 1-2-3 / WordPerfect to 
Office97 products. When they open an old spreadsheet with a new tool 
(Excel97), they get a copy on their C:\TEMP directory. This does NOT happen when
they open a newly created Excel Spreadsheet. (The IlockByte interface
works if the source is an Excel spreadsheet, but not if the source is
a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet). Why? The object class is the same, the tool
is the same, but it behaviour is different?

6. Excel97: We (inside LinkWorks) edit the Spreadsheet that previously was
in a .WK4 format. We do some editing, Exit (from the file menu), and we
get the File Save dialog, which ask us to select a format (default is
set to .WK4). This dialog also asks if we wnat to save the document
in out /personal directory, well beyond LinkWorks's limit! Strange.

7. Excel97: Are there any reasons for this customer to use the IlockBytes 
interface for Excel, other than that they don't need to copy the file over 
the network? I mean, as long as the linking doesn't work anyway?
How do we remove the IlockByte mechanism?

8. Excel97: Is it possible to Edit directly on the original file on the 
server? Concurrency would be difficult, but links between documents might work?


I think it is important that LinkWorks engineering provide a SWC for 
Office 97 in the near future. If not, they must at least test LinkWorks and
Office97, and describe how customers can use these applications together.

Many thanks in advance! I hope I am not asking too much, and I also hope 
you have time to look into some of these issues. See also note 2188.


Regards,

Bjarne