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Importing MS-Word Documents into Lotus Notes

Integra for Notes provides a facility to automate the importation of Word documents into a Lotus Notes database. The scenario were such a facility may be used is typically were an organisation has a large number of Word documents stored on a file system and a requirement exists to mass import these documents into a Lotus Notes database.

Integra for Notes allows the creation of an Integra import profile which will result in the creation of an individual Notes document for each of the Word documents being imported. Typically the form used in Notes will have multiple fields, at least one of which needs to be identified as being the field to receive the Word document. In addition, the other fields on the form may need to be populate. This is undertaken by creating a Selected Field List in the same way that fields are identified in an export profile. The main difference is that in an import profile, these fields all need to be formula fields whose formula determines the value to be placed into the field once the Notes document is created.

The profile can be created in such a way that the meta data properties of the Word document such as the document's title, author etc. are also automatically updated into chosen fields within the Notes document as well as other fields being populated through formula or LotusScript. This is defined in the section below.


Identifying the Field to Contain the Word document
As you will be aware, the Word document is only able to be imported into a rich-text field within the Notes document, however because the Notes form used may contain multiple rich-text field, Integra needs to be directed as to the specific rich-text field which is to receive the Word document. This is done by identifying the specific rich-text field as being of type formula and setting its value as follows:
"Word.richtext"

This is shown in the screen shot below. Please note that the constant needs to be surrounded by quotation marks.




Storage Methods for Word Document

Integra for Notes allows for the importation of the Word documents to be effected using three methods:
  • Rich text - Import the actual rich formatted text of individual Word documents and place these as the content of a Notes rich-text field in individual Notes documents. This results in the text showing and not the Word document being stored as an attachment or embedded object.
  • Attachment – Attach the Word document into the rich-text field of the Notes document.
  • Embedded Object – Create the Word document as an embedded object within a rich-text field of the Notes document.

The required method is selected within the Word tab of an Integra Word profile which is set for importing (see screen shot below).



It is a well known fact that when Notes' File -> Import facility is used to import Word documents into Notes, the fidelity of such an import is lost with much of Word's formatting options being lost. Integra for Notes does not rely on this method but rather uses Word's own cut and paste options. While this is slightly slower and causes some screen flicker, the fidelity of the document importation process improves.

Of course, there are formatting features available in Word which are not available in Notes and obviously these would be lost. See FAQ - Does Integra support rich-text.


Choosing Files to be Imported

The Document file name field in the Integra import profile (shown above) allows identification of the name of the document to be imported into the Notes database. The lookup icon shown alongside provides for the Windows open file dialog box to allow selection of the file to be imported.

In the event that the file name field is left blank, at the time of running the Integra profile, the user will be presented with the standard Windows File Open dialog box shown below which will allow identification of the file or files to be imported.



Importing Word document meta properties into Notes fields

To import the Word documents' meta data properties into Notes fields, you need to create computed fields in the Selected Field List in the Integra profile and define them as of type Formula (see user manual for detailed instructions on creating computed fields). You can give the new field any valid Notes field name.

The value of the computed field would then need to be set to the appropriate value to obtain the required meta data. For instance, the formula to refer to the Word document's author property is “Word.Properties.Author”.



Note: as you enter a field formula you need to enter the text constant in quotes.

The following table shows the table of Integra Text Constants to be used to refer to the Word document properties:


Word Property Constant (VB)
Constant
Value
Integra Text Constant
WdPropertyAppName
9
“Word.Properties.APPNAME”
WdPropertyAuthor
3
“Word.Properties.AUTHOR”
WdPropertyBytes
22
“Word.Properties.BYTES”
WdPropertyCategory
18
“Word.Properties.CATEGORY”
WdPropertyCharacters
16
“Word.Properties.CHARACTERS”
WdPropertyCharsWSpaces
30
“Word.Properties.CHARSWSPACES”
WdPropertyComments
5
“Word.Properties.COMMENTS”
WdPropertyCompany
21
“Word.Properties.COMPANY”
WdPropertyFormat
19
“Word.Properties.FORMAT”
WdPropertyHiddenSlides
27
“Word.Properties.HIDDESLIDES”
WdPropertyHyperlinkBase
29
“Word.Properties.HYPERLINKBSE”
WdPropertyKeywords
4
“Word.Properties.KEYWORDS”
WdPropertyLastAuthor
7
“Word.Properties.LASTAUTHOR”
WdPropertyLines
3
“Word.Properties.LINES”
WdPropertyManager
20
“Word.Properties.MANAGER”
WdPropertyMMClips
28
“Word.Properties.MMCLIPS”
WdPropertyNotes
26
“Word.Properties.NOTES”
WdPropertyPages
14
“Word.Properties.PAGES”
WdPropertyParas
24
“Word.Properties.PARAS”
WdPropertyRevision
8
“Word.Properties.REVISION”
WdPropertySecurity
17
“Word.Properties.SECURITY”
WdPropertySlides
25
“Word.Properties.SLIDES”
WdPropertySubject
2
“Word.Properties.SUBJECT”
WdPropertyTemplate
6
“Word.Properties.TEMPLATE”
WdPropertyTimeCreated
11
“Word.Properties.CREATED”
WdPropertyTimeLastPrinted
10
“Word.Properties.LASTPRINTED”
WdPropertyTimeLastSaved
12
“Word.Properties.TIMELASTSAVED”
WdPropertyTitle
1
“Word.Properties.TITLE”
WdPropertyVBATotalEdit
13
“Word.Properties.VBATOTALEDIT”
WdPropertyWords
15
“Word.Properties.WORDS”

Please refer to the Word documentation for further details on the Word document properties.


Categorisation

Frequently, a user may wish to bulk import documents in a particular directory and to tag these with a particular category field in the Notes document. The Integra import profile can be set using the options available in the Advanced tab of a profile in such a way that the user is asked for a value or a number of values which will be used to update the fields in a Notes document.

Example: Documents related to a quality management system currently exist on a file server and procedures, work instructions and the quality manual itself are all stored as individual documents in different sub-directories. The Integra import process can be set so that on running, the user is prompted for the directory (this is done by leaving the file name blank in the profile) and to pop-up a dialog box asking the user to identify the type of document (i.e. procedure, work instruction etc). Following user entry, the selected documents would be imported and the Document Type field updated with the value set by the user.

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FAQ# 0068
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