Cannot download word docs

[geroid]

I'm having a big problem that I just can't seem to solve. I have links in my web pages to word docs in the following format:

 

<a href="http://www.panceltic.ie/media/Fillable/2013/Piping.doc" title="Camogie Entry Form" >Download Entry Form</a>

 

My problem is that the doc will not open. It does not lead to the standard 'open with (Microsoft Word) or Save as' dialogue box. It simply lead to a 'Page cannot be found' web page. The URL is correct, the doc name and location is correct. I just cannot figure it out. I have created microsoft word docs with form elements on them (text boxes etc.) that can be filled out by the user and saved then as ordinary word documents. This is a facility in word to allow me to create fillable forms andsave them as ordinary word docs. This is normal. I don't see how this could effect them downloading to a users PC. I have tested other docs and they are indeed downloading OK but not these newly created ones.

Is there a way I can overcome this issue??

 

Can anyone help???

[Christian F.]

Since the error message returned is a 404, the most likely problem is that the path and/or the filename is wrong. Check that this isn't a problem of upper-lower case differences, and that the folders are actually in the location you think they are.

My preliminary testing shows that it's the "Fillable" folder that's the issue.

[geroid]

Hi Christine F

Thanks for the help. I finally found the solution and it was not related to incorrect URl or folder names or filename. As I said, I created a fillable form in Microsoft Word under the 'Developer' tab (one must enable this). I created fillable text boxes, date fields and drop down menu choices. All this was easy enough but I simply could not download these docx document from the page. I don't know why. I tested ordinary Word documents and they worked fine but these .docx fillable forms simply would not budge. They led me straight to a 404. So I think the reason was to do with some of the form elements (date field etc.) of the form doc, I was having compatibility issues. I removed these elements and replaced them with ordinary text boxes and I then saved the doc as a 97-2003 Word doc (.doc) and it worked. I didn't change any html as I was sure I did not have incorrect URL or filenames/paths. So it works now and I'm not really sure why not before but as I say, all I did was save as earlier version and remove some form fields. I'm now almost 8 hours finding this solution and I thought I'd be out of here in 2.

 

Thanks again for all your suggestions

[Jessica]

not related to incorrect URl or folder names or filename

 

Unless you prove this to be the case, I'm going to agree with Christian. The folder "Fillable" does not exist. If it did you would see one of 3 things when going to it. A directory listing, an index file, or the same message you see at http://www.panceltic.ie/media/.

http://www.panceltic.ie/media/Fillable/ does not exist. You have made a naming mistake at some point.

 

[geroid]

Hi Jessica

As I say, the folder 'Fillable' does indeed exist not only on the real server but on my home development server and this problem persisted on both platforms. The filenames are correct (not only did I double check them but I actually copy and pasted the filenames into my html page to be sure I was not making any mistakes) and the 'Fillable' folder shows up on the server when I upload into it from my ftp client.

I'm not saying that I really know the answer but when I carried out the steps I mentioned (i.e. removing those form elements and resaving as .doc 97-2007 word document) it started working. it is now working for the 8 different documents I needed.

I would love to have used the original docs I created but I didn't want to spend another 8 hours on this.

 

Thanks for your suggestions