Replies

Thanks very much, Clint. It seems that the specifications available for the GMA 3150 graphics VGA port only ever quote the max resolution, rather than the specific intermediate ones available. However, it does look as though chances of it driving the BenQ are quite high, so time to take the plunge.

Just to fill in a bit more:

The same type of ability to open XML files described in my earlier e-mail, can also be done using Office 2003.

If all you need to do is be able to open and make simple edits to the XML files, then opening them in Word 2003 or 2007 might do you just fine.

Unfortunately, use of a translation memory program like Wordfast as a macro in Word normally involves going through the entire text, sentence (“segment”) by sentence in order to supplement the original German segments with matching English translations. Wordfast finally removes the German (“cleans the file”) so that only the English translation remains.

I could do this with all the tags showing, but it would involve hunting for each isolated passage of pure text manually rather than the process of translating consecutive (uninterrupted) text segments usually involved. Trying to work normally (consecutively) would end up with Wordfast additionally offering the tags for translation (thereby also messing up their formatting) as well as the text actually required.

Thanks once again for all your help. I’ll let you know via the post whether I arrive at a viable solution.

Regards

Just got back to a location with an Office 2007 PC, and you can open XML files using Word 2007 or Excel 2007.

It looks like in its default presentation, an XML file opened directly in Word may not be much practical use, in that it shows both the data and the tags – kind of analogous to how an XML file displays in Internet Explorer.

When I open the same XML file with Excel, I get a few options for how to view it – but selecting the first option displays the data nicely formatted in a table, which seems more useful.

I’ve used XML files as data sources in earlier versions of Word, importing the data with VBA and the MSXML parser, but have never played around with importing XML data directly via the user interface.
This is definitely an area where I’ve got to some learning to do too….

That’s very illuminating. I’ve since also disccovered that (still using Word XP) I can get an XML file to open showing the tags as well, but only after letting it first crash Word, and then trying to reopen again and using “recover data” when Word warns that it crashed with the file last time. Perhaps its time to find out just how the client thinks all this is going to work! Thanks very much for your interest and input – much appreciated.

Word 2007 will definitely open .docx files without any problems, and will also handle Word 2003 .doc files fine too.

XML files from other sources/programs, I wouldn’t think so (though I’ve never tried it, and don’t have Word 2007 at my current location). What kind of XML files are you dealing with, and what do you need to do with them?

Thanks very much for taking the trouble to reply, Gary. As far as I know, the files will basically be text (I’m a freelance translator from German into English, and this is a client’s requirement which is definite but hasn’t fully been spelled out yet). All I know is so far is that they will be of the form *.xml.

The client has a “master plan” of importing files from different translators and in various pairs of languages created using translation memory programs such as Wordfast or Trados (and using xml as some sort of common format). I will need to be able to open and edit .xml files using Word + Wordfast (which I already do successfully with Word XP + Wordfast in the form of a macro, but only working with .doc files). The client will take my finished translation (with pairs of segments in German and English) and import it into some form of master database for translation memory files (examples include ACROSS and Authorit – this is apparently a fairly recent development that software houses such as Adobe have been getting involved with).

It’s all getting rather beyond my experience to say the least, but in my innocence I had hoped that – given that .docx seems to be an .xml-based format – Word 2007 would be capable of simply opening any .xml files.

It’s worth a try – uninstall the Office 2007 components, then install the file format converters, and finally try to reinstall the Office 2007 components.

Thanks very much indeed, Hans. Since posting, I’ve uninstalled Visio 2007 (the only 2007 component apart from PowerPoint Viewer 2007, which won’t uninstall – the routine looks for non-existent source DVD and can’t even find the viewer on my Visio installation DVD), found and uninstalled the existing version of FileFormatConverters.exe (aka Compatibility Pack), then reinstalled FFC.

When I tried to open a sample .docx file I had downloaded off the internet I then got the message “This is a pre-release version of the compatibility pack and can open pre-release Office 2007 files only. …. Do you want to install an updated version?” I therefore installed the supposedly updated version of FFC only to get the same “pre-release” message once more when I tried to open a .docx file.

It begins to look as though, rather than trying to persist with using Word XP to open and edit XML files, the only solution may be to purchase either an update or full version of Office 2007. Am I right in assuming Word 2007 will open docx files without any problems (seems to be its native format)? Can you also tell me whether it will open XML files from other sources/programs, which is my real need. I rang Microsoft in the UK but could not get a definitive answer (… depends … … compatibility …). I presume Word 2007 will at least handle ordinary .doc files from older versions of Word.

No, even with USB drive installed System Restore is not configured to use it, only OS (C:) (System) is checked for such use on the tab.

Thanks again

Nick

Nice try, Joe. Unfortunately “Optimise for quick removal” was checked so write caching already disabled.

Thanks very much once again, Joe. I’ll follow the link up as soon as current workload lets me out of its clutches

Just using drive for occasional backup of contents of “Documents” and “Pictures” folders using SyncToy (on “contribution” basis). Not using Readyboost at all.

Thanks Joe. Had a look under Properties but cannot find any mention of write caching.

Thanks very much Leif. That’s certainly an workaround if, as seems increasingly evident, it’s impossible to modify Vista’s behaviour in this case.

(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable – see Help 19)

Thanks for all your help. I’ve finally cured it – your Googled thread was basically correct, but I didn’t realise that under Vista you have to run the program as administrator to make the changes. In case anyone else hits this problem the Microsoft answer is as follows:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937997%5B/url%5D

Your help is much appreciated. I think the Bluetooth will prove to be the problem in the end so will keep pursuing it.

Thanks very much for your help, Hans. Assuming it is a Bluetooth problem as suggested in the thread, I tried to uncheck the Bluetooth add-in, but just got the message: “The connected state of the Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed” and the box would not uncheck. Also tried: Disable all Application add-ins: sucessfully disabled them, but problem still remained.

Thanks very much indeed for your pointer to comprehensive help, Tony. Since I posted, having restored my computer to 3 earlier dates in succession the problem seems to have resolved itself, but the Mozilla article will remain useful in the future – thanks again.