[sims] Profiles Mailmerge showing tags, not data - MS Office 2010

[bwfc_nottingham]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone has experinced a similar problem to the one I'm encountering.

 

I have a 'Profile Session' which has a linked Word xml document to produce an ROA report

 

The report has tags for comments, clases, teachers, results etc.

 

 

When I go into Focus---Profiles ----Student Profiles ---- Generate

 

then the output I get is a mixture of merged data from sims and tags i.e. <> with no data

 

 

 

I've tried a whole load of reccomended settings on Word 2010 relating to:

 

Trust centre macros settings

Trust Centre Privacy Options

Proofing

Table Properties

Body Text

Graphics

I cannot get word to generate correctly:

 

Any tips or advice would be most helpful as I've had a frustrating morning !

 

 

Regards

 

Phil

[vikpaw]

Assuming you haven't manually edited a tag and it's broken - which you can test if there is a validate template option, then the usual fix was to just reinsert a new tag into the template, a simple one like <> and then save.

When this happens in assessment, the tried and tested method is to edit the template exit without saving and save when prompted , then save it in sims.

maybe you can try something similar within profiles.

[Ron_Bate]

I came across the following advice which seems to work:-

 

"Clone a report, edit the template, save it in Word and close, then save in SIMS. Open the template again, click somewhere random on the template (not making any changes) then close Word and save in SIMS. Running the report should then work.

 

I've found that running the report straight after editting the template doesn't work, the fields don't pull through, however opening the template once and then running it does work.

 

Any changes to templates (which were created in Office 2003 at least) seem to require this process."

[CAM]

I have had this issue permanently for years, ever since moving to Office 2007 and over 2 seperate schools. I find it helpful to make changes, save the template, quit, save in SIMS then re-open the template and run Verify Template from the right-click menu. Works 99% of the time and has to be done after any changes.

 

No idea why Capita haven't made SIMS play nice with Office yet as 2007 has been out for over half a decade now.

[vikpaw]

@Ron_Bate @CAM is this for Profiles too?

[CAM]

It's for Individual Report which is where teacher data goes eventually, Profiles or AM7.

[Ron_Bate]

Yes, applies to both Profiles reports and Assessment Manager individual reports.

[vikpaw]

I thought Profiles had it's own templates, didn't realise it used the individual report ones.

[CAM]

I think they use the Report Section tags.

[Ron_Bate]

Profiles uses different templates to Individual reports but it is still a mail merge process and hence the problems with tags showing instead of data etc are the same.

[vikpaw]

In which case there is a sticky on supportnet i think the known issues one with lots of hints, including the relevant M$ hotfixes, and office patches which also affect reports. As a safety catch it can also be worth just trying teh edit with office 2003.

[Marci]

Just to point out (based on the joys of the past few days) - all the above are still issues in current vers of SIMS with latest vers of Office

 

*prepares to throw something through the window*

[starthms]

Hi i have been give this list of things to do in office 2007 to stop this. its a bit of a b%$l drag so gave up and just make it in 2007 and have old pc with office 2003 on it to just open and save the template. Little worried as xp and office 2003 supports being pulled so may be asked to get it off the network for virus reason hope captia fix it before then.

 

Changes to be made in Word 2007 to allow Profiles/Assessment to work

 

 

Enable Macros

 

Click on the Office Symbol (top left hand side)

Click on Word Options

Click on Trust Centre

Click on Trust Centre Settings

Make sure that Enable Macros has been chosen

 

 

Table Properties

 

If there is a table in the document which contains Assessment Manager aspects

 

Click on Table Properties

Click on Row

Take the tick () off ‘Allow Row to Break Across Pages’

 

This will ensure that the grade will show in the table as required.

 

Proofing

 

Click on the Office Symbol (top left hand side)

Click on Word Options

Proofing

Take the tick () off ‘Grammar with Spelling’

 

Proofing

 

Click on the Office Symbol (top left hand side)

Click on Word Options

Proofing

Under ‘When Correcting Spelling and Grammar in Word’ take the tick () off ‘Check Spelling as you Type’

 

 

 

Privacy Options

 

Click on the Office Symbol (top left hand side)

Click on Word Options

Click on Trust Centre

Click on Trust Centre Settings

Click on Privacy Settings

Take the tick () off ‘Store random number to improve Combine accuracy’

 

 

Smart Tags (This has to be done everytime you Save a document – it doesn’t stay unticked)

 

Click on the Office Symbol (top left hand side)

Click on Word Options

Advanced

Under ‘Show Document Contents’ take the tick () off ‘Show Smart Tag’

 

 

 

Excel 2007

 

To be able to import from and Excel 2007 spreadsheet into SIMS Assessment Manager, please save the spreadsheet in a ‘csv’ format.

[CAM]

I have to admit, it is becoming somewhat frustrating and unacceptable that a core and import part of SIMS cannot handle itself properly when presented with an Office template. That said, they are looking into SIMS 8 using either Google Apps or SkyDrive which hints at changes on the way. I only hope these bugs don't follow.

 

As for the current version, we need this fixed! It is frustrating for those who don't know how to quickly fix the document which they shouldn't be doing. Why not just use the Mail Merge system that Word uses? SIMS Reporting can handle it why not AM7? It beggars belief that I have been seeing this bug since moving from Office 2003 and over two sites and multiple versions of Office yet bizarrely, one of the fixes on my checklist is to delete the <> tag and put it back in again. Random!