Opening a Word template in FileMaker

I hope this can help someone else. I've been trying sporadically over the past year to resolve this. And this is on a PC so I'm not sure how a Mac would react.

Problem: Normally, when you click on a Word template, a new, blank, unnamed file opens, based on the template. Using the "Send Message" or "Open URL" to open that file, however, results in opening the template file itself rather than a copy.

Solution: Use the "Send Message" with some specific spacing and quotation marks.

The trick is to NOT open the template file directly but to open Word with its "/t" switch, telling it you want to open a template.

Here's the example:

Winword.exe /t"C:DesktopTest.dot"

1. "Winword.exe" simple opens Word. You don't need to specify its path.

2. Leave a space after ".exe"

3. "/t" is Word's switch that tells it you want to open a template

4. DON'T leave a space after "/t"

5. Enclosed in quotes, enter the path and the file name

Now the template opens correctly. You can make this dynamic by having "Send Message" reference a calculated field that builds the proper statement based on a user's choice of templates.

John McInerney