Recently, I was working on an implementation for a new client when I ran across errors stemming from Word Templates in GP. We were attempting to print out a Word template, and no data was populated for any of the Word templates we attempted to use. We were specifically testing with the SOP Picking Slip order form. When we ran it, there would only be xxx where data should be. The standard report ran just fine, so we knew it wasn’t a data issue, but for whatever reason the Word template would continuously turn up with xxx characters instead of data.
We opened up a case with Microsoft, and they told us that this will typically occur if there is a logo image that’s too large or if there is a third-party product such as Binary Stream Multi-Entity Management enabled. In the course of troubleshooting, we were able to remove Multi-Entity Management from the picture entirely by taking it out of the Dynamics.set file and removing he related add-ins from the Addins folder. When we did this, the template worked perfectly, and the data appeared as expected. At this point, we knew for certain it had to be something to do with the MEM software.
We opened up a case with Binary Stream and related the facts to them, at which point we were asked to provide a log of the issue. After examining the log and walking through the issue over the phone, they were able to suggest opening the Entity Setup window (Tools>Setup>Multi-Entity Management>Company>Entity Setup) and populating the Logo Image Path with the path from the Image Assignment window (Reports>Template Configuration>Images):
Once we did this, the SOP Picking Slip template printed without issue. We’d been having a similar issue on a couple of the other reports, and it turns out this fix worked for them as well. The takeaway here is that when this occurs (xxx instead of data on a template), it’s usually traceable to the logo in some form or fashion. If you run into this issue on your own system, the first place I would recommend starting would be with the logo image, and go from there. Hopefully this information helps as you configure your Word templates in Dynamics GP.
