I really don’t like to have to explain this, but I feel a responsibility toward my users, and therefore I will briefly explain things as I see them. Recently, theWord has come out with a new version, version 7. See their website for the new features or announcement. Your theWord program should be prompting you to upgrade to version 7 at present.
My recommendation is that you do not upgrade at this time, maybe later in the year or next year.
I upgraded to version 7, and I had freeze ups of the program. Click Control+Alt+Delete to open the Windows Task Manager, and kill theWord process. But I have had to do that maybe a dozen or more times since upgrading. I have reverted to using version 6. Maybe my computer is very old and just having its own problems (a local problem just with me), but… be advised.
Version 7 versus Version 6
I have gotten in touch with those running theWord, and we have been corresponding about the issues, which I will share with you here, but the fixes offered don’t convince me.
Version 7 implements Unicode in making links within a module and between modules. Most users do not actually use that function, since they read and click on the links. It is a feature only module creators would use.
But in doing so, the entire framework of the program has changed. If you are using version 6 still (my recommendation), you cannot open any module that was created under version 7, nor any version 6 modules that were edited with version 7 of the program. That is a problem to me, especially if version 7 is not ready for prime time yet.
I am not absolutely sure, but I think that doing some simple things in version 7 like indexing, compressing, or other things will also switch a version 6 module to a version 7 module.
So you should be aware of the issue. Some theWord module repositories are ONLY posting version 7 modules. When you open theWord (version 6), and it detects a module saved in version 7 of the program, that module will not be viewable to you in version 6, and the program will again popup a startup warning.
The software engineers are trying to fix this backward compatibility issue from what I was told. Until they fix it, I would stay with version 6. In version 7, I am also seeing (in making Module Layout Sets) various greyed out entries that are version 6 modules that it cannot make viewable.
So there are issues. Be aware of them.
Modules with no theWord IDs, and Duplicate IDs
Starting with version 7, the program is going to prompt you when it detects any module without a proper theWord module ID. This is seen and accessed in selecting the module on the module selector bar and right-clicking on it.
If the module is placed in a Module Layout Setup, in a folder, select the folder, then the module, and then right-click on the folder name.
From there, you should see something like this…
In the field named “Identifier”, that is the theWord ID, there needs to be a unique ID in that field. I put b3800 in the module in the sample image above. I would recommend you using an abbreviation of your name with a number. DO NOT USE ANY ID FORMAT THAT SOME MODULE CREATOR IS USING.
So to understand how this affects you the user, EVERY TIME you run theWord, you will get these start up errors/warnings until the problem is fixed. So you need to fix them yourself. Our modules do not all have TW Ids at present, and I am slowly reviewing the 4000+ modules on this site, and the 3000+ modules on my other theWord sites and adding those IDs as I find it is needed. This will take me some time to accomplish.
So it is important for you to note several things here.
- Warnings of modules with no TW Id will continue to happen until the problem is fixed. If you use version 7, get used to it. In version 6, this check is not done.
- If a module links to another module and the program does not find the target module, nothing will happen. It will be a “dead link.” If there are two modules with the same ID, the program may act strangely, sometimes working and sometimes not working as far as seeing or going to the target module. The program cannot decide which of the duplicates to use. This has been the behavior for various previous versions, and the version 7 is trying to deal with that problem.
- You will also get an error if two modules have the same ID. This happens because somewhere in the places theWord looks for modules, there maybe a duplicate module. If you keep all of your installed modules in the same program folder, that probably won’t happen. Maybe it would if you made folders and moved some to a folder/subfolder.
Note: Where theWord looks for modules. Open theWord, click Help on the main menu, then in the dialog box, there are three tabs. Click on the “File locations” tab. You should see something like this.
Note that I am using the USB theWord installation, but to a folder on my external hard drive, so it is Drive E:. While the USB install files folder is in that external drive folder, it still detects modules in the main hard drive theWord installation, “Common modules folder”. So if you install version 7 and make any changes or upload a version 7 module, it may be there.
What I am (David Cox) Doing about this
I am slowly going through all of my modules and adding unique theWord IDs to every module. As I get this done in batches, I will be uploading these new versions of the modules to my theWord sites. I am trying to make sure that each module has an ID, and that there are not two copies of the same work with different tw IDs, and that there are no duplicate modules with the same tw IDs.
Note that I also google and download theWord modules from other people’s websites, and if they do not put tw IDs, I have to add them. If the module is encrypted, I just will not host it here. I may find a pdf of the work somewhere on the Internet, and make my own version of the work at some future point.
With somewhere around 7,000 modules that I am offering (developing more every day), this is a formidable challenge considering I am a missionary, I have my family, my church on the field, and my supporting churches that all take up a lot of my time. My wife comes first, then my church, and on down the list is this task.
But to keep track of what I am doing as I work on it in spurts, some every week, I am adding a tag to the filename. These tags help me (and my users) to keep track of things easily.
“-twv6” Modules viewable under version 6
I am labeling the modules with this flag to make sure that we know that it is viewable under version 6. If you have version 7 and open and do things in the module, you have unknowingly converted it to version 7 so remove this tag from the filename.
sample module.gbk.twm => sample module-twv6.gbk.twm
But if you are using theWord version 6 and run into problems with version 7 modules, you can come here and safely download a version 6 version of the work. I do not know which repositories are hosting version 7 modules, and you cannot tell except by downloading the module and running theWord.
Under version 7, it should read all version 6 modules. We will see with time if that holds true or not.
“twid” Modules with the theWord identifier field holding a unique ID
Since it is frustrating to the user to open theWord to do some quick work, and the program insists on popping up these warnings, one after another ad nauseam, I am adding a tag to let you know that the specific module has the identifier field filled in with a valid ID.
sample module.gbk.twm => sample module-twid.gbk.twm
Until this program gets resolved within the software, I am following these practices. As far as the modules that are already posted for download, I would say probably half or more than half already have tw Ids, but I haven’t checked and updated the filename yet. Working on it.
While these two steps will help you greatly in navigating these problems, there is the problem of duplicate modules. You may still end up with duplicates even with these measures. You will have to weed out the duplicates. Please note that there is also the problem of downloading the same work from two different module repositories. While they may not trigger any warnings, you really do not need two or three different copies of the same book. That problem you will also have to sort out. If you are using version 6, make sure the module you keep is viewable under version 6.
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