Problem description: invalid look-up value during upload of a Word document

During upload of a Word 2007 document in a SharePoint document library, you can run into following error: Invalid lookup-value. A look-up field contains invalid data. Please check the value and try again.

 

Solution: remove the Document Properties with the Document Inspector

Probably, the Word document you are trying to upload is a Word document downloaded from another SharePoint document library. The source, original document library has probably other metadata (columns) than the document library to which you are trying to upload the Word document.

To fix this, remove these hidden metadata with the Document Inspector:

1. Open the Word 2007 document and click the Office 2007 button, located on the top-left of the window.
2. Choose Prepare –> Inspect Document, which will start the Document Inspector.
3. Check the box Document Properties and Personal Information, which will inspect hidden metadata saved with the document.
   
   
   
4. Choose Inspect.
5. Choose Remove All. This will remove all Document server properties and Content type information saved with the Word document.
   
   

Aferwards, you’ll be able to upload the Word document to your own SharePoint document libary.

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Problem Description: Forms Based Authenticated users cannot open Microsoft Office documents

You have configured your Web Application to use Forms Based Authentication. Users cannot open Microsoft Office documents such as Microsoft Word or Excel files. Non-Office documents open without problem. When a user tries to open a Microsoft Office document, the Microsoft Office program is launched (such as Word), but the file, stored in a SharePoint document library, is not opened. In stead, the user sees something which is similar to the login page to which a user is redirected for a Web Application configured with Forms as Authentication Type. The document opened is also indicated as being the login.aspx page.

Solution: check the Sign me in automatically box while logging in

The user should check the Sign me in automatically box while logging in. This is the easy workaround, but you'll not always be able to teach your users this way.

Another, more user-friendly, solution, is to check the box by default. To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Open the login.aspx page in edit mode. The login.aspx page resides in the _layouts folder (%Program Files%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS).
2. After the </asp:login> closing tag, add following code lines:

   
   <script language=javascript>
        document.getElementById("ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_login_RememberMe").checked = true;
   </script>

3. Execute an iisreset.

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Problems which may arise with document conversion

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes document-to-Web page conversion utilities that can convert Microsoft Office Word 2007 documents (with and without macros) into standard Web pages that can be published to an internal or external Web site.

Some problems or difficulties may arise though while setting or trying to use this document conversion functionality:

• While converting a Microsoft Office Word 2007 document, you receive following error: Converting the document to a page failed. The converter framework returned the following error: CE_OTHER.
• The Convert Document option is not available in the contextual menu for a document stored in a SharePoint Document Library.

7 crucial points to check

If you run into these difficulties, I recommend to run through underneath checklist to verify if everything is set up as it should.

• Go yo SharePoint Central Administration -> Application Management -> Document conversions (under the External Service Connections section) and verify if document conversions is enabled for the Web Application and if there is a Load Balancer Server defined.
• Check in Administrative Tool -> Services if the Office Document Conversion Launcher Service is running and is running under the Local System account.
• Check in Administrative Tool -> Services if the Office Document Conversions Load Balancer Service is running and is running under the Local Service account.
• Check if Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is not installed on a domain controller: document conversion is not supported in such a configuration (you could have this problem if you are trying out some stuff on a local VPC for example).
• Check if the Microsoft Word document is saved in the 2007 version (extension .docx). The document conversion won't work for Microsoft Word documents saved in a previous version.
• Check if the publishing features are enabled for the SharePoint site on which you try to use the document conversion functionality.
• Verify the configuration of the content type of your Microsoft Word document: it should be configured properly for document conversion. (Manage document conversion for this content type).

If you have other checks to perform, feel free to post them as comment to this blogpost.

Some interesting resources around the SharePoint document conversion functionality:

• Configure the Document Conversions Load Balancer Service (Office SharePoint Server)
• The document conversion functionality in MOSS has potential
• Smart Client Authoring

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Problem description: You are prompted to enter your credentials each time you open a Microsoft Office document stored in a SharePoint document library

Each time you open a Microsoft Office document, you are prompted to enter your credentials again, even if you check the box remember my password. For non Microsoft Office documents, such as PDF files, you are not prompted to enter your credentials. The credentials prompt is not taken into account apparently: if you choose Cancel in the prompted window without entering your credentials, the Microsoft Office document is still opened.

Solution: Modify the registry

There is a fix for Microsoft Vista: you should have service pack 1 installed of Microsoft Vista as the hotfix is automatically included in service pack 1.
The next step is to modify your registry as described in the Microsoft KB You are prompted to enter your credentials when you access an FQDN site by using a Windows Vista-based client computer that has no proxy configured.

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You can add preformatted document libraries to your SharePoint sites easily. They give you an excellent example of how you can set up Microsoft Office Word 2007 templates with a document information panel containing metadata values based on the columns in your corresponding document library.
It is also an excellent example about how you can add these metadata values in your Word 2007 document through means of inserting Quick Parts. By editing the properties of your document in SharePoint, the update will be reflected immediately in your Word 2007 document and vice versa.

I ran into one problem however: after having installed the List templates in the List templates gallerie, they didn't become available in my site when I tried to create a new document library.

I soon realised it had something to do with the language settings: my site was not an English site, but the List templates are only available for download in English.

To create new document libraries based on these excellent examples of List templates in a non-English site, follow these steps:

1. Change the .stp extension to .cab.


2. Open the .cab-file with an archive tool, such as IZArc.


3. Extract all files to a temporary directory.


4. Open the manifest.xml file with an editor such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.


5. Look for the Language node and change the lcid 1033 (for English) to the lcid of your choice.


6. Drag and drop all extracted files into the .cab-file if you are using IZArc. If you are using another tool, just make a new .cab-file containing all the extracted files.


7. Change the .cab extension to .stp. You can optionally choose to give the list template another name if you want to have it co-exist in the gallerie next to the English one.


8. Upload the List template.


9. You'll notice that the language column of your just uploaded list template reflects the value based on your chosen lcid in step 5.


10. Go to the site created in the same language as your chosen lcid in step 5: you'll see that the list template becomes available in the new form under the Libraries section.

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