Experiences with Microsoft Office 2010 and Fabasoft eGov-Suite 8.0 SP1

Last update: 4 August 2017

Summary

As Microsoft Office 2010 has been released at a later date than Fabasoft eGov-Suite/eCRM-Suite 8.0 SP1, Microsoft Office 2010 could not been tested in conjunction with Fabasoft Folio 2009 Fall Release or the Fabasoft eGov-Suite/eCRM-Suite 8.0 SP1. Therefore Microsoft Office 2010 is not listed in the Software Product Information (SPI) and is officially not supported.

This article is about experiences, workarounds and known issues we found based on customer feedback and own tests. Although Microsoft Office 2010 is not supported in Fabasoft eGov-Suite 8.0 SP1, we collected feedback from our customers and own tests.

Note: The information is provided "as-is" and may be incomplete. All information is subject to change.

Information

Basic content handling (open/save) showed no noticeable problems with Microsoft Office 2010 (32-bit). The usage of the 64-bit (or x64) edition of Microsoft Office is not recommended.

The following issues are known:

DocProperties are trimmed after 254 characters

Information: DocProperties in Microsoft Office 2010 are truncated after 254 characters. This even happens when the document or the DocProperties are not changed.

Solution: This a general Microsoft Word 2010 behavior and cannot be influenced by Fabasoft. If you are using DocProperties longer than 254 characters you might have to switch to text modules or Word bookmarks with kernel expressions. We also suggest to contact Microsoft. Eventually Microsoft will fix this issue to restore earlier Office behavior.

Word-Button, Outlook-Button, Text-Insertion-Button do not work

Information: The Word-Button, Outlook-Button and Text-Insertion-Buttons do not load. This is caused by the new ribbon control of Microsoft Office 2010.

Solution: With the release plugins of Fabasoft eGov-Suite 8.0 SP1 these buttons cannot be used. The Fabasoft Folio Word and Outlook plugins of Fabasoft Folio 2010 and Fabasoft Folio 2011 operate with Microsoft Office 2010 and can be used together with the Fabasoft Tools Manager aka Folio Plugin. Please note this mixed constellation is officially not supported and you have to test for potential side-effects.

Note: The button controls of Fabasoft Folio 2012 and above cannot be used together with Fabasoft eGov-Suite 8.0 SP1 since the used registry entries have changed.

Problems with Microsoft Office 2010 (x64 Edition)

Information: After a document has been opened for editing a misleading "Save as" dialog appears while closing the document.

Solution: Currently there is no solution for this issue. If Microsoft Office x64 edition is used the automatic mapping between the opened object and the associated application window is not possible. Therefore the Fabasoft Tools Manager is not able to keep track of opened or closed windows and applications. Microsoft recommends - independent of any Fabasoft-specific issue - the usage of the Microsoft Office 2010 32-bit edition (see http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/products/office/pages/office_2010_build.aspx ).

Mail merges cannot be opened when another instance of Microsoft Word 2010 is already running

Information: If you try to open a mail-merge while another instance of Microsoft Word 2010 is already running, the mail-merge will not open.

Solution: Set the following registry key for every user working on clients running Microsoft Office 2010:

       Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Fabasoft\COOCIS]

"CacheWinword"=dword:00000001

Microsoft Powerpoint: Document stays locked after closing the document without closing PowerPoint

Information: If you close a Powerpoint document, but leave the Powerpoint application open, the object is not unlocked.

Solution: Set the following registry key for every user working on clients running Microsoft Office 2010:

       Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Fabasoft\Process Parameters\POWERPNT]

"Class"="PPTFrameClass"

"Class0"="PPTFrameClass"

"Window"="%Microsoft PowerPoint%"

Microsoft Project: Document stays locked after closing the document without closing Project

Information: If you close a MS Project document, but leave the application open, the object is not unlocked.

Solution: Set the following registry key for every user working on clients running Microsoft Office 2010:

       Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Fabasoft\Process Parameters\WINPROJ]

"NoDDE"=dword:00000001

Authentication dialog when opening documents using WebDAV folder

Information: If you have configured WebDAV folders to use with Fabasoft eGov-Suite 8.0 SP1 and you open an Office document from the WebDAV folder, you get an authentication dialog. This also happens for every document, even if you entered your credentials already during opening the first document.

Solution: This behaviour occours if you use basic authentication without SSL to authenticate against Fabasoft eGov-Suite and WebDAV folders. Microsoft Office 2010 does not cache credentials anymore (different from Office 2007 and earlier), that's why a authentication dialog appears for every document that is opened via WebDAV.

Microsoft recommends to use Kerberos authentication or SSL encryption for WebDAV folders (see also http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2123563/en-us ).

With Kerberos authentication no authentication dialog is displayed.

Different error symptoms if template folder and/or workgroup template folder is redirected to a network share

This issue is valid for all Fabasoft Folio / Fabasoft eGov-Suite versions.

Known Symptoms:

• Error during mail merge: "Command failed"
• Error during mail merge: "Merge to new document split failed with: undefined"
• Possibly: Folio function "Send" / "Send as PDF" fails

Solution: These errors may occur if the user template folder and/or the workgroup template folder of Microsoft Office applications redirect to a network share. These folder settings of Microsoft Office by default redirect to a local directory in the user profile. This problems are addressed by a Microsoft Office Hotfix KB 2553912 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553912/en-us .

It is recommended to install this Microsoft hotfix package, or change the template folders back to a local disk.

Applies to

• Fabasoft eGov-Suite Version 8.0 SP1
• Fabasoft eCRM-Suite Version 8.0 SP1
• Fabasoft Folio 2009 Fall Release
• Microsoft Office 2010