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MS Word templates behavior

dejan
Hi all,

We currently analyzing and trying out templates' mechanism and we have found certain behaviors that are kind of strange that I would like to raise and ask about here.

We have setup MS Word template for specific document type using specific calculated properties as template's placeholders. On our server, we have installation of Apache Open Office, our clients are actually using MS Office (we are using MS Office 2019).

When testing directly on server (we have installed client there too), we can see in preview mode that all properties' placeholders are correctly filled with correct values, for our calculated values and also for fixed properties we take from document or through object type hierarchy. So far so good.

When testing with real case scenario (using installed client on separate machine having MS Office 2019 installed with M-Files add-on), we experience following behavior:
[list type=decimal]
  • User create new document with template but in a preview mode he/she still sees placeholders instead of real values replaced. Same test on server shows real values instead of placeholders after document creation (please assume that for this user does not need to check out document at all.)

  • When on client machines, user check-out document and open it in MS Word 2019, placeholders get calculated and replaced as expected. When user saves and check-in document, those values can be seen in a preview mode too as expected.

  • When user changes some of properties and save it, and then make preview those changes are not reflected in the document. User must check-out document so that placeholders are re-calculated and populated. This happens with both calculated and properties existing on the metadata card. Obviously versioning of metadata card content and document are not really bound together. I can understand that this is kind of performance optimization but I am wondering if you could track if certain properties are used in template and in that case check-out document and apply changes in placeholders as you obviously do during document creation (well at least on server and with Apache Open Office).

[/list]

As described above, due to this behavior, we experience that we usually need to create 1-2 more versions per document which again affects storage management and performance. Could you optimize this behavior?

More problematic for us is, that for some documents user just trust system and to populate placeholders based on rules and send it further for signing, so people usually do not check it out in those case but just move document through set of workflow step. In those cases, users do not get those placeholders populated. As I mentioned, this work very well on server with Apache Open Office preview mode. This is really strange behavior and i would assume it as a bug.

Thank you for your feedback and details about those behaviors and also potential fixes.

Dejan
  • No one out there having these experiences with templates? No one using properties/placeholders in templates? It would be very interesting to hear how templates could be used.

    Additional tests directly on server shown that sometimes even those calculated properties get propagated to the preview mode without checking out document but in some cases not, completely nondeterministic.

    I am wondering if the problem could be that we do not have installation of MS Office on our server, I can see that PDF is rendered correctly (still some problems with date format). As that property replacement happens on server, could it be that MS Office need to be installed on that server which renders templates with calculated properties?

    Thanks
  • We have the same problem. If people just check the Word preview and do not check-out and Save the Word document no property values, including the e-signatures are shown in the Word preview. Also if opened as read-only. The e-signatures are never shown in the preview when the workflow reaches the next authorizer, only when the Word file is checked out and saved next time. By converting to pdf in each step, at least they are shown there. Quite annoying.
  • There is a vault setting that might help with the metadata field updates but note that this might affect performance in some environments since the update is then performed during every check-in: www.m-files.com/.../enabling_metadata_field_updates_in_web_and_mobile.html
  • Hi all,

    Thanks for coming back to us on this topic.

    In the mean time I have found following suggestions and tried it out: support.m-files.com/index.php

    Seems to work for the majority of properties; for some that we calculate in certain phases of workflow transitions it still does not work. We are using desktop clients actually so I am not sure if this what Joonas suggested would work for us. But I will try it.

    Thanks
  • Hi again,

    I have tested configuration recommended by Joonas and it seems not to work. I have verified both web site and desktop client and non of would render properties/placeholders correctly after document is created and just changed in workflow steps.

    So if we calculated some of properties later on during processing and apply them in the document, those placeholders are not replaced until the last step when we publish final PDF version of our document. This is really pity because this would be incredible selling point for templates and placeholders concept. I understand that this could cause more waiting for users by re-rendering the document but the most users would extremely glad to have it and to see that they changes have an effect.

    In Desktop client, link i suggested works well for correct rendering of Word documents and rendering of placeholders after document creation. M-Files seems to use built-in Windows preview tool which is not powerful enough to replace those placeholders and render properly Word documents. This does not really help with properties calculated during the way and workflows until we create final PDF.

    I would highly recommend this as an improvement because this is so essential for end users. This is such a great feature and people generally love it but not seeing their e-signing properties would be very hard to accept.

    @Mango: What did you mean by "By converting to pdf in each step, at least they are shown there. Quite annoying."? Do you still keep Word version users can edit?

    Thanks!

  • I will try the registry keys.
    And yes, I keep the Word doc throughout the workflow, some stages require editing data in the Office doc that are not properties in m-files, some stages just require an e-signature. By converting to PDF, preview will show if it was properly signed in the previous state. End state the Word doc is removed and the PDF locked.
  • Hi Mango,

    so you make pdf conversion during each state transition? What I posted above (support.m-files.com/index.php, helps in preview mode with properties after creation but not those not replace those automated properties which were changed along the template. We have info about document drafter and also some signed on date/times which are not shown in document until user not check it out and commit it. I though converting it into PDF in preview mode would replace also those values (pick them from the server) but it seems it does not happen, converting is on the client side and does not take those properties as it seem. I think the majority of users would expect longer loading in preview mode, just to see all placeholders replaced accordingly!

    Thanks




              

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