Is your business experiencing issues emailing Word templates out of Dynamics GP following recent Microsoft Office update?

As we all get back to business as usual following the recent lockdown, we’ve noticed that following the recent Microsoft Office update that GP users could be unable to send out Word templates from Dynamics GP. 

NB: If you are planning to upgrade O365 with GP then please talk to Advantage first as some changes are required on GP and these need to be planned into your upgrade plans. 

So just what is this Word Template issue? 

Essentially when Word templates are opened either to screen, to file, or in an email, GP users will report the error below when they attempt to open it: 

To put this into context, the issue revolves around the opening of the file, not the generating of it! You will find that the files will still be shown in the chosen location or in the email you wanted to send. If you tried the ‘to screen’ option then you will see that the file is in your local %TEMP% directory. Therefore, if you are still sending emails to customers/vendors, we suggest that you convert them to PDFs rather than Word documents. However, if your customer/vendor has updated Office recently, they won’t be able to see the attachment. 

Am I affected by this Word Template issue? 

If your business is on any Office version past build 13127.20408 you will be affected according to Microsoft regardless of which GP version you are currently using. Please see the full list below directly from Microsoft: 

Channel	Version	Build	Release Date	Previous Build
Current Channel	2008	13127.20408	September 9, 2020	13127.20296
Monthly Enterprise Channel	2007	13029.20534	September 8, 2020	13029.20534
Monthly Enterprise Channel	2006	13001.20648	September 8, 2020	13001.20520
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (Preview)	2008	13127.20408	September 8, 2020	12527.20988
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel	2002	12527.21104	September 8, 2020	12527.20988
Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel	1908	11929.20946	September 8, 2020	11929.20934

How do I resolve this Word Template issue? 

If your business is experiencing the above issue, there are a number of temporary options available at this stage until Microsoft has developed a more permanent fix: 

• Roll-back Office to 16.0.13127.20296 (or earlier); disable automatic Office updates until permanent fix is advised. 
• Send PDF instead of Word Documents – as if the recipient at the other end have upgraded their Office, they won’t be able to open the Word Attachment. 

NB: Please do not attempt to rollback Microsoft Office to the previous version without discussing it with Advantage first as it could cause other issues within your Dynamics GP solution. 

Next Steps? 

If your business is experiencing the issue above then we strongly recommend that you get in touch with our team of experts now who will be able to assist you with rolling back Microsoft Office & to check that everything within Dynamics GP is still working as it should be. 

If you want to receive Microsoft Office issues like the above straight into your inbox then please sign up to our mailing list today.