MS Word Prompt User for Input and replace text in document

Question

I have a document in ms word 2010 which we use for documentation purposes on installing some software on our servers.

The document uses <SID> text which indicates to the viewer the text needs to be changed to match whichever server you are working on.

For example:

SQL> !mkdir /oracle/<SID>/mirrlogA/cntrl
SQL> !mv /oracle/<SID>/sapdata1/cntrl/cntrl<SID>.dbf /oracle/<SID>/mirrlogA/cntrl/
SQL> !rm /oracle/<SID>/112_64/dbs/spfile<SID>.ora
SQL> create spfile='/oracle/<SID>/112_64/dbs/spfile<SID>.ora' from pfile='$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/init<SID>.ora';

We have to manually edit each of these or use a Find + Replace for <SID> -> SRS.. Is there a way i can define a document property in place of each of these entries, and then use a macro to prompt the viewer for the SID and it will update all of this automatically?

Answer 1

Most likely you want to use an ASK field which prompts the user for information and inserts the result into bookmark locations in the document. You will need a macro to make the prompt appear when the document is opened.

There are other ways you may want to go about this, and Greg Maxey has a great page which goes into detail about all of these possible techniques (including using an ASK field) so I suggest to read up on that.

Answer 2

There are several options:

• Totally different: a friend of mine runs a company that works a lot on UNIX platforms. They use LaTeX to generate documentation. LaTeX is a language for typesetting in high quality. On most UNIX and Windows versions it can be installed simply. Output in PDF and other formats.
• We ourselves use Microsoft Word with Invantive Composition (own product); it allows you to pull data from a database, webservice or alike and put them in tables and fields in Word and in the Word document properties.
• I've seen an Oracle consultant generating RTF from the UNIX prompt; it is simply to script on UNIX, even when the UNIX flavour has no UNICODE support. RTF can then be mailed using sendmail, transferred using Samba or alike and opened in Word.
• For simple scenarios with one or few fields and low production volume you can create a custom property in Word (Start -> Document Properties -> Advanced) and insert that using the Insert ribbon. Change value in Document properties, ctrl+a to select all, ctrl+f9 to update the values, voila.