RE: Word 2003: TOC in document is failing if the template is not inits original folder

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

I hope this isn't a bogus way to piggy-back on SBs post...
Jonathan West responded to Sylvia B. :
> > Using Word 2003, if I don't have the template in the original folder
> from
> >  where the document was attached and if I update the TOC in the
> document, I
> >  get errors on almost every line (in the TOC).
[...]
> 3. With the document open, go to Tools, Templates and add-ins. Is the
> "Automatically update document styles" box checked?


> >  When putting the template back into the same (original) folder,
> > everything works fine. Is this the way a template is supposed 
> > to work?

> It works that way or not depending on the setting i described in
> question 3 above
> 
> >  I thought you could detach the template and everything should 
> > still be OK.

> Normally yes. But it can be (for perfectly good reasons to do with
> document consistency) set the opposite way.

Yes, that document consistency requirement is what pulled me in. That
and having seen similar things to what Sylvia saw. 
What's the desired workflow if you are creating and maintaining the doc,
and want your own minimalist and well-crafted(?) array of styles to
prevail, but other people (reviewers, SMEs) might be getting their
undisciplined little mitts on the document?

Say, for instance, that a reviewer has made changes (small and
not-so-small) on 100 out of 400 pages (a comma here, a new paragraph
there, a table imported from gawd-knows-where), track-changes is on,
many of the changes include the use of spot formatting or the creation
of new (unwanted by me) styles. 

In what condition should the document go out - i.e., with which
pre-emptive settings engaged?
How should it be handled when it comes back, marked up, in order to
accept the reviewer's changes into the doc (assume that they are almost
all acceptable in terms of their content additions/changes/deletions,
but _not_ their formatting), without accepting any of the reviewer's
format-or-style-related changes, and without having any new styles
appear in the style list?

I can think of a couple of blunt, brute-force methods that involve a lot
of hands-on remedial work by me, but I assume there's a straightforward
way to import just the content changes while excluding anything
formatting-related.

It used to be that I didn't have to worry about this sort of thing,
since I lived/worked with the people who designed and built the products
that I documented. But when we inherited the product lines of an
acquired company, we also inherited their tools, their docs, and their
way of doing reviews, as well as distance and timezone and cultural
separation from said reviewers and SMEs.

I've had to start poking around with settings that I previously just
left undisturbed, and have been running into what might be mutually
exclusive interactions, including some that seem a lot like what SB was
getting.

I don't care that the remote tinkerers can-or-can't update the ToC,
because it's not important that the ToC be accurate until I'm nearly
done with the document and update it one last time. But I can't count on
them not to know where to look if they want to make it update for their
own perverse reasons. I just need to be able to undo or ignore their
setting changes and any formatting they've done, while still receiving
or importing the benefit of their valuable content changes.

So, in summary, what's the best, most efficient way to do it?
A) You have written a document, it looks and works (content) the way you
want it to, and now you are about to send it to somebody who will
inflict their knowledgeable but different perspective on it. How do you
protect it as you ship it?

B) You get it back, with the hundred changes. On your left monitor you
have the original document open, in all the glory of its pristine
styles, but with slightly deficient content. On your right monitor you
have the reviewer-modified document with upgraded content, but with
extraneous formatting and some weird new styles. What's your next step,
and why?

Thanks,

Kevin
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