Options

Backup mode

Save a backup of any modified files. If the original file was called test.doc, the backup is saved to test.bak.

Retain file Modified dates

When checked, the original file date of files is retained.

Retain file Last Access dates

When checked, the original Last Accessed date of files is retained. This allows your organization's data retention policy to be maintained, as documents that have not been accessed by a human still retain their original date.

Force Word to Save Changes

This option can be used to workaround bugs in Microsoft Word. There are a number of methods for detecting whether a Word search/replace made any changes or not. Unfortunately the 3 methods vary in their implementation between Microsoft Word versions and are buggy. For example, in Microsoft Word 2000, search/replaces in the header ALWAYS mark the document as changed, even if nothing was found.

Using this option you can still force Word to save changes, but you may have to manually check if the documents actually changed. Unfortunately this is the only way. The best option is to use Word 2002 or later.

Setting this option can result in files being shown on the Files Changed tab, but with the text 'At least 0 change(s) made' beside them.

Update field codes before save

By disabling this option you can avoid FILLIN field dialog boxes popping up when the document is saved (not any other type of popup dialog). Normally (by default) WordPipe updates all field codes before saving the file.

Allow alerts (necessary for mail merge)

Normally WordPipe disables alerts from Microsoft Word, which is fine in most cases as the default choice is selected. However, if you have data sources or a mail merge document, you must check this option. When checked, Microsoft Word will prompt you to ask if it can open the mail merge data source. When not checked, the mail merge data source information is removed.

Process read only files

When checked, if read-only files are encountered, they are first changed to read-write, processed, and then set back to read-only status. When unchecked, read-only files are skipped.

Process longest 'Find what' strings first

Very useful for translators, this option causes the search/replace list to be first sorted in order of the longest (i.e. most specific) Find What strings first. A good example is this:

If the string 'Parent Information' is found in the file, it gets replaced by 'Padre Information', and the second row is never used. This situation is avoided by first sorting the list so that the longest (i.e. most specific) replacements are first.

Keep Microsoft Word visible while changes are being made

While slower, this option can be useful for debugging and monitoring what WordPipe is doing.

Accept Revisions

Accepts revisions before processing - otherwise they can prevent matches from being found.

Disable Addins

Checked by default, this option disables Microsoft Word AddIns in case they interfere with the search/replace process. If you need an AddIn to remain loaded then uncheck this box.

Prevent overlap of search/replaces

Prevent chaining of search/replaces where a early replace gets changed by a subsequent search e.g. with the following set of replacements:

Imagine the sentence 'A cat bit the dog'. This will be changed to 'A foo bit the foo' because the replacement on one line is found by the search on the next line.

When this option is checked, the replacement becomes 'A dog bit the rat'.

Password for open

If a document requires a password for open, WordPipe will open it using this password. The password is ignored if it is not required to open the document. If the password is wrong the document is skipped.

This can be handy if you have multiple password-protected documents sharing the same protection password.

Password to modify/unprotect

If a document requires a password to modify it, WordPipe will provide this password. The password is ignored if not required.

This password is also used if you specify a Code Module search and a VBProject is found to be protected.

WordPipe restores the original protection when it saves the file.

Read Only Recommend

Use this setting to change the default Read Only Recommend setting of modified documents.

ISO-9001 version control

If your company is certified to the international ISO-9001 standard, it's essential that you also update each document's version number when any changes are made.

With WordPipe, you can automatically update the version number by 1.0 or 0.1 or any other amount automatically.

'Revision' document property name

This is the name of the custom property that holds the version number in the document, usually 'DocRevision' or similar. For more information, please click here. This field is NOT case-sensitive.

Increment

The amount to increment the revision by, usually 1.0 or 0.1. This value must be a valid floating-point number.

Microsoft Word Control

The following options are used for controlling Microsoft Word - in particular, how Microsoft Word errors are handed. This settings should be left alone unless you know what you are doing!

Version of Microsoft Word to invoke (use ONLY with multiple Microsoft Word installations)

If you have more than one version of Microsoft Word installed, you can use this field to determine which version WordPipe interacts with.

If you only have one version of Microsoft Word installed, leave this set to the 'Automatic' setting.

Restart Microsoft Word after this many documents

Microsoft Word's performance and reliability can be improved (especially for large documents, and large numbers of documents) if it is restarted periodically.

A value of 0 disables this option, 100 documents is a useful default.

Note: Do NOT use this option when using Clipboard replacement (^c in the replace field). If you do, the clipboard contents may be cleared or corrupted when MS Word is restarted, leading to failed replacements.

Restart Microsoft Word automatically if unresponsive for this many seconds

Microsoft Word can sometimes get stuck when opening a document, for example, if it detects that an error occurred last time it opened a document, it will ask for confirmation. This kind of message can interrupt WordPipe's processing, so you can force WordPipe to restart Microsoft Word after a given number of seconds of inactivity.

A value of 0 disables this option, 30 seconds is a useful default.

Location of MSWORD.EXE (to restart from catastrophic failures)

Sometimes when Microsoft Word is restarted it corrupts its own settings in the System Registry, making it impossible to restart using normal methods. By specifying the path to Microsoft Word, you can get WordPipe to attempt to restart Microsoft Word directly. Use the browse button to locate MSWORD.EXE, possibly in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSWORD.EXE.