Re: access Word docs on web (IE)

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From: Tom Holub (tom@LS.Berkeley.EDU)
Date: Thu Jun 13 2002 - 13:56:58 PDT


On Thu, Jun 13, 2002 at 09:10:09AM -0700, Kathleen Phillips Satz wrote:
>
> Hi: We have a number of Word documents posted on our website. In
> Internet Explorer, I have no problem opening them if I click on a
> link, but if I type or paste in the URL, I'm unable to open them. The
> error message says both "unable to open" and "IE was not able to find
> this site." Then it pretends it's transferring the data, but never
> finishes.
> Netscape is no problem; it offers the option to save to disk or open
> the file. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to tell our users
> only to use Netscape.
> An example is [1]http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/forms/adform.doc .
> It sounds like a browser issue, but is there a publishing solution
> from our end, or should we just tell IE users they have to click on a
> link rather than pasting in the URL to open Word docs? (We use
> Dreamweaver 4 to publish.)

"Doc, it hurts when I do this..."

The publishing solution I'd choose is to not post Word documents on the Web.
They're extremely unreliable as fill-in forms and have serious issues with
cross-platform compatibility (and, as you've found, even browser
compatibility). The form you mention above, which departments can fill out
to request placing ads in various publications for a job listing, would be
easier to use as a Web form rather than a Word document. This is true of
most of the hrweb Word documents--at least those where the form's purpose is
to transmit one-time information to HR. Things like job descriptions are a
little more complicated, but I would love to see a non-Word solution there
as well.

-- 
Tom Holub (tom_holub@LS.Berkeley.EDU, 510-642-9069)
College of Letters & Science
249 Campbell Hall
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