Urgent: problem w/ Word files copied between folders

Factual Questions
1

This is what is happening, and the not good, very bad results (as far as I know them, because I’m not doing this but it really affects me):

[ol]
[li]Word documents are being frequently moved between directories (part of the control process here at work, so it has to continue).[/li][li]The more often they get moved, the more likely the mover is to get a message that the file cannot be saved in the new location because the file name is too long.[/li][li]Once that message starts showing up, problems with renaming the file also start showing up (“Invalid file name or file name too long”, more or less–same message received in 2). [/li][li]It sometimes becomes impossible to open the file.[/li][li]Word files that **can ** be opened can be “Save As” anywhere and will have no more problems.[/li][/ol]

PC: Using Windows 2000
Servers: (presumably) using Windows 2000 server
Program used to move files prior to problems: Windows Explorer
Program used to rename files after problems start: Windows Explorer
Program used to open and “Save As” after problems start: Word 2003

Most of these Word files are created using a template that is saved on each writer’s computer [C:\Documents and Settings<user id>\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates]. The template is attached to the file; would detaching it help, since the file won’t be able to find the template once it’s moved to a different server, etc.? What effect might that have on the formatting of the document?

Sometimes moving a problem file up the directory tree helps with the opening and renaming, but it is not always possible to move the file. This makes me wonder if the problem lies in the length of the file path plus the file name–looking at some of them, I get a count of over 200 characters or so, but as I recall the MAX_PATH limit is 255 characters.

The LAN administrators are saying it “might be because the documents are making calls to something and not getting responses”. They’re suggesting it might be a problem with having the template used to create the documents still attached to the document, or even a problem with the template itself.

Any suggestions will be more than welcome. Please direct them to this thread, as I do not have access to my home e-mail while I’m at work. I’m going to keep checking on this thread.

HELP!!

2

My one allowed bump. Dang–48 views and no responses. There has to be a sysadmin-type geek on the boards someplace, doesn’t there?

3

2 Qs, no As yet.

Does the business process really require the template to be attached to the file? I wonder about the wisdom of each user having their own set of templates. Sounds like a maintenance nightmare to me.

Without disclosing any company secrets, could we see an example of a problem file name in it’s entirety?

I’m wondering if what’s going on is at some level people are refering to the file as something like S:\projectX\subprojectY\Estimates\Somedocument.doc and meanwhile S: is mapped to \server1234\folder\folder…\folder for 15 levels. So the absolute path to S: is less than 255, and the relative path from S:\ to the file is less than 255, but the sum exceeds 255.

I don’t know for sure that that scenario would cause a problem, but I have a hunch it will. At some point in the bowels the mapped drive path has to resolve to a UNC.

A mount point in there somewhere could also cause that behavior for the same reason.

4

These are Word files. The template used to create the document is automatically attached at the time of document creation. Once the document is created, you can detach the template. The writers have the template on their individual computers because, otherwise, they’d be using the one on the server to create their documents. True, this would cut down on the issue of their having the latest version on their own computers, but it would ALSO prevent my being able to update the one on the server as the computer/server/Word (not sure which) considers it to be “in use”.

Damned if I know. I’m a somewhat knowledgeable PC geek, but I know little of network and system administration.
Here’s a sample of the full path (as seen by a regular user (me), not by a system administrator). I’ve substituted the letter “c” for anything that might be remotely traceable to the company.

\CCCCCCCC\CCCCCC\CCCCC37\Inst\Projects\Business Architecture\CC CCCCCCCC CCCCCC\08_Procedures\03_Write\Completed Procedures\CCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCC\Published

A typical document name might be:

Create And Route Related Trackers For CCCC CCCCCCC Or CCCCCCC-D030106-CC_02.doc

There are counts 218 characters in the full string, including all the spaces. This is below the MAX_PATH limit of 255, but not by much.

I’m told that there is actually a bit more to the path than I can see (a server harddrive letter and a bit more before you even get to the share drive, maybe?), but I have no way of telling if that’s what’s pushing us over the edge.

At the moment, I’m told, one of the people who can is renaming files and directories to shorten this string as much as possible. As far as I know, that’s working. I hope so, since the local LAN Admin’s idea of a solution was to restore from a 3-week old backup! He has no idea how much changes in an ongoing documentation project in the course of three weeks. shudders

What’s a UNC? I think I remember what a mount point is (that’s telling the computer where to find a particular doo-hickey and making it available for use, right?), but unless UNC resolves to Universal Naming Convention, I am afloat.

Let me know if you need more information; I’ll do the best I can to answer it with the 2nd hand info I was given since, dangit, I not only haven’t experienced most of the issues I posted about, I didn’t get to talk to the LAN admin directly. sigh How anyone thought I could figure out how to fix things under these conditions is a mystery, but I do my best.

5

Yeah, it’s “Universal Naming Convention”, as in \servername\sharename\path.

I’ve seen your filename error in other applications, and it was due to the path being too long. So as a hokey fix, your directory renaming approach should work fine. Your process of moving files between directories like that, though, seems kinda weird.

6

You cannot open the documents that have a long folder name in Office

7

Thank you all for your help. I do appreciate it. My thought had also been that the problem lay with the length of the path+file name.

My only concern is that there have been files, with names just as long as the problem files and in the same directories, that did NOT have the problems described. The only difference I know of is that the problem files were created with an actual template and the non-problem files were created by doing a “save as” of a document and replacing the contents. I don’t think that should make a difference, and yet, I’m told, it does.

Hunter Hawk, moving the files between directories helps us keep track of where it is in the testing/sign-off process. Frankly, when I first heard of this set-up I thought it was pretty stupid, but I’ve changed my mind. We have 12 writers working on several hundred files; it’s a lot easier to look for “all the procedures that have to be sent out for testing” in a single directory than it is to look for them in all the different writers’ directories using a list put together from e-mails.

Again, thanks all.