Word 2007 Import Problems

I have seen a couple of problems with the FrameMaker Word 2007 import filter in FrameMaker. It seems that some Word formats do not import correctly like they did with Word 2003. The “by hand” solution is to open the Word 2007 (.docx) files and save them out as Word 2003 (.doc), and then import the Word 2003 files into FrameMaker. This was not an attractive solution for one of my clients that was using FrameScript to import the Word files into FrameMaker.

Since FrameScript can control Word via its EActiveXObject object, the solution was to modify the script so that it performs the Word 2007 to Word 2003 save down automatically. Here is basically how it works:

  1. The script looks for the file extension when it is passed a Word file. If the extension is .doc, it proceeds as usual.

  2. If the file extension is .docx, the script passes the file to a new function in the script. The function opens the .docx file invisibly with Word, and saves it out to a temporary Word 2003 (.doc) file.

  3. The script continues with the import with the newly created Word 2003 file. After the temporary file is imported, it is deleted from the disk.

The nice thing for the client is that her original automated process is restored, and she is able to work with both Word 2007 and Word 2003 documents.

–Rick

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *