WD: Can't Use UNC Drive for Document Path on Some Networks

• Microsoft Word for Windows 95, versions 7.0, 7.0a
• Microsoft Word 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you choose Open from the File menu, Word shows documents available on the Desktop or in the root drive of C, even though the Document Path setting is pointed to a network drive.

Changing the Documents setting in the File Locations tab of the Options dialog box (on the Tools menu, click Options) does not change this behavior.

This happens on LANtastic and NFS (Unix) networks.

WORKAROUND

Map the network drive to a drive letter, and use the RegOptions macro to modify the Windows Registry settings:

Word 97

1. Map the network drive to a drive letter.

2. Use the RegOptions macro to reset the default document location:

   a. On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-ins

   b. Click Add.

   c. Change to the Macros subfolder. This directory is typically

         C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Macros.
   

   d. Select the Support8.dot file and click OK. This step adds the

         Support8 template to the "Global Templates and Add-ins" box. Click
         OK.
   

   e. On the Tools menu, click Macro.

   f. In the Macros In list, click "Support8.dot (Global Template)." In the

         Macro Name list, click RegOptions and then click Run.
   

   g. On the Word 8.0 Options tab, select Doc-Path from the Option list

         box.
   

   h. In the Setting box, type the path to the network location (for

         example, G:\user\mydocs).
   

   i. Click OK.

Word 7.x

To work around this problem, map the network drive to a drive letter. Then, follow these steps to use the RegOptions macro to reset the default document location:

1. On the File menu, click Templates.

2. Click Add.

3. Change to the Macros subfolder under Winword (for example, C:\Msoffice\Winword\Macros).

4. Select the Macros7.dot file and click OK.

   This step adds the Macros7 template to the "Global Templates and Add- ins" box.

5. On the Tools menu, click Macro.

6. In the Macros Available In list, click "Macros7.dot (Global Template)." In the Macro Name list, click RegOptions and then click Run.

7. In the Section box, select Word 7.0 Options.

8. In the Option list, select DOC-path.

9. In the Setting box, type the path to the network location (for example, G:\user\mydocs).

10. Click OK.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

For additional information that may help in resolving this issue, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q160807
   TITLE     : Cannot Connect to Windows NT Server with Many Shares