Microsoft KB Archive/222181

= OFF97: Readme.txt for Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool =

Article ID: Q222181

The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Office 97
 * Microsoft Excel 97
 * Microsoft Word 97
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 97

SUMMARY
This article contains the complete text of the Readme.txt file included with the Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool. More information about unique identifiers and the Removal Tool is available from the following addresses:

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/ http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloaddetails/pf_setup.htm

MORE INFORMATION
-    README for Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool March 1999 -

(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1999 This document provides complementary or late-breaking information. You can also check OfficeUpdate on the Microsoft Web site for the latest information.

HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT
To view the Readme file on-screen in Windows Notepad, maximize the Notepad window and click Word Wrap on the Edit menu. To print the Readme file, open it in Notepad or another word processor, and then use the Print command on the File menu.

CONTENTS
1. Using the Tool from the Command Line

2. Using this Tool with the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch

3. Known Issues

3.1.   Cannot install tool on Windows Terminal Server 3.2.   The Last Modified date is changed for each repaired file 3.3.   Office documents embedded in other documents are not repaired 3.4.   No progress indicator when run from the command line 3.5.   HTTP and FTP directories not supported 3.6.   Instruction text in tool is cut off on some Arabic and Hebrew systems 3.7.   The start directory cannot be read-only 3.8.   Some files may slightly increase in size 1. Using the Tool from the Command Line

The executable that corresponds to the Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool is called PROPFIX.EXE. By default, it is installed into your Program Files directory, in a directory called "PropFix". It can be run from the command line with the following arguments:

PROPFIX [/c] [/f filename] [/d dirname] [/l logname] [/r]

/c       Check for the existence of unique identifiers on documents, but don't try to remove them /f filename Run the tool against the specified document

/d dirname  Run the tool on all the documents in the specified directory /l logname  Specifies a log file for results /r        Recursively examine all folders in the specified directory If you have set the /r flag, you also need to specify a folder with the /d flag.

If /l is omitted, then results are written to "propfix.log"

Note that wildcards aren't allowed for either filename or dirname.

Also note that when PROPFIX.EXE is run from the command line, no alerts get raised. You can check the log file after executing the command to review the results.

2. Using this Tool with the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch

This tool removes the unique identifiers from existing Office 97 documents. To prevent Office 97 from writing unique identifiers into future documents, you need to apply the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch as well. This patch can be found on OfficeUpdate.

3. Known Issues

3.1. Cannot install tool on Windows Terminal Server

To install the tool on a Windows Terminal Server installation, first install it to your local machine, and then copy PROPFIX.EXE from c:\Program Files\PropFix\ to a directory on the Windows Terminal Server machine. You can then create a shortcut on the start menu to the tool.

3.2. The Last Modified date is changed for each repaired file

When the tool removes the unique identifier from a file, it has to change the Last Modified date. If you use a document management tool or some other synchronization service that depends on Last Modified date, after running the tool you may see alerts that files are out of sync or out of date. However, the only change that this tool makes is to remove the unique identifier. To minimize these alerts, just run the tool against the backup version (or shadow copy) of the file, and then apply the change to the main document storage.

3.3. Office documents embedded in other documents are not repaired

If you have embedded an Office 97 document into another document, the tool cannot repair the embedded document. To remove the unique identifier from the embedded document, first apply the unique identifier patch to Office 97 (also on the officeupdate web site). Then open the containing document in Office 97, and open the embedded document. Close that embedded document, and then close the containing document, saving changes. This will remove the unique identifier from the embedded document.

3.4. No progress indicator when run from the command line

To support silent operation of the tool in batch mode, all progress indicators are suppressed when the tool is run from the command line. If you're running the tool on windows 95, the command prompt will pause while the command is executing. If you're running the tool on Windows NT, you can use the task manager to check the progress of the tool.

3.5. HTTP and FTP directories not supported

You can't repair documents in HTTP or FTP directories with this tool. To repair documents in these directories, you'll need to download the documents to a local directory, run the tool, and then upload the repaired documents.

3.6. Instruction text in tool is cut off on some Arabic and Hebrew

systems Due to certain display problems, the instruction text in the tool is cut off on some Arabic and Hebrew systems. The full instruction text is "Choose a location containing Microsoft Office 97 documents. All documents in and below this location will have their unique identifiers removed."

3.7. The start directory cannot be read-only

If you choose to start the tool in a directory that is read-only, any Office 97 documents that are in read/write directories below the read-only directory will not be repaired. You can either change the top directory to read/write, or you can start the tool on the individual read/write directories below the read-only directory.

3.8. Some documents give a "Unicode Translation Error"

If the encoding used to create a document isn't installed on your system, you will get a "Unicode Translation Error" when you try to update the document. For example, Macintosh Office documents are typically encoded with encodings that aren't installed on Windows 95 or Windows 98. The solution is to determine what encoding the document was saved with, and then install support for the missing encoding on your system. If you can't determine the original encoding, or the encoding support is unavailable, you can apply the Unique Identifer Patch to your Office 97 installation, and then open and save the document to remove the unique identifier.

KBCategory: kbinfo KBSubcategory: xlloadsave

Additional reference words: OFF97 XL97 WD97 PP97

Keywords         : xlloadsave Version          : WINDOWS:97 Platform         : WINDOWS Issue type       : kbinfo