Autodisplaying extensions in Word. - Solution

["Mark Emson" <mt -dot- emson -at- ntlworld -dot- com>]

Hmm! Very interesting, if you're into this sort of thing.

Thanks to Justin Cascio I now have the answer to my question about
automatically displaying the filename and/or extension in Word documents.
(W97, 2K and Win98 - I don't have access to other systems at the moment)
It seems that the subject may be a relevant to others who face a similar
task.

PROBLEM:
I had the need to display the file name automatically so that multiple
copies of a 2 base documents could be made that when saved under new names
would auto display the new document name in the footers and elsewhere as
required. The problem came in that 1 base doc displayed the filename alone
but the 2nd doc also displayed its '.doc' extension. There didn't seem to be
a way of turning this feature on or off.


SOLUTION:
Justin explained:
1. In Windows 98 or 2000, start Windows Explorer.
2. From the Tools menu, choose Folder Options.
3. In the Folder Options dialog box, click the View tab.
4. About seven items down, clear the "Hide file extensions for known file
types" check box.
5. Click Apply, then OK.

Thanks Justin,


For this to work I had to also restart my system.
When the document opened, nothing changed until I updated the field.

The part I feel of most relevance is that the action is not tied to the
document. i.e. if your machine is set to display extensions it will, whilst
other machines, not set in this way, will not.
'No great problem' you think until you send the document to a customer and
find your page layout has gone adrift all for the sake of 3 extra letters
and a full stop.

'Ah, you said that for the change to work the document field must be updated
'

Very true but again the wonderful world of Word also makes this a problem.
Depending on your particular system set-up, word gives the option (under the
Tools, options, print tab) of updating fields before printing. So, while
everything may look fine on screen, as soon as you hit print the whole lot
goes pear shaped.

So there you are. Given the choice, avoid it. Unless of course anyone knows
better and can turn off these features keeping the document unaltered.

Thank to all who responded but obviously, most thanks to Justin.

Mark Emson
mt -dot- emson -at- ntlworld -dot- com




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