MS Word for OSX Not Passing Cookies to OSX Browsers
Mark Pompey
LATIMES.COM wants users to register before they can have the ability to access certain pages. If you sign up and login once, the browser stores a cookie with the account information which eliminates the need to login each time.
Our customers click on a LATIMES.COM link and it launches the default browser (either Safari or IE) and attempts to connect to the page referenced in the link. For some reason, when it is initiated from MS Word, the LATIMES.COM cookie is not passed to the site. If I paste the link directly into the address bar of the browser, it works correctly.
Has anyone experienced this problem before?
Here are some notes from on what I have already done or observed so far to attempt to solve this issue:
I was able to duplicate this issue on the G3 machine in my office using the Word file that was sent to me by the customer. (OSX 10.3.2 with latest software updates; Office for OSX with all available updates applied)
- The problem appears to be only on the Mac platform. Specifically when using Word for OSX:
- Using the same document on my PC worked fine.
- If I restarted in OS9 and used Word 2001 it worked fine.
- If I launched Word 2001 on OSX (in classic mode) and then clicked on the link in the document, IE 5.2 (from OSX) launches and correctly connects to the document. (For some reason Safari failed on this test.)
- I tried it in OSX with both IE and Safari as my default browser and experienced the same problem. This leads me to believe it is not a browser problem. The problem seems to be in the interchange between MS Word for OSX and the browsers.
- I did some preliminary web searches. I found one item relating to Word 98 (3 versions back) and a setting for cookies. I could not find the same information on Word for OSX. I could not find any settings related to this in either browser or Word itself.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Mark
Beth Rosengard
I'm copying this to you directly because I thought you might have given up
by now :-). You haven't been forgotten (however, when you reply, please
post to the newsgroup so that this discussion stays in the archives).
You described such peculiar behavior that I escalated your post to MS and
they just came back with the following:
> This is interesting behavior. Strange, to say the least. I am curious, though,
> If you move the link to any other application including PPT and Excel X what
> happens? Also is it just a problem with LATIMES.COM or other sites that
> require log-ins? Couple of things to check out.
If you can check these things out, we'll try to get you some answers.
--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP
Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
On 3/17/04 5:16 PM, in article #1Fn6aID...@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl, "Mark
Pompey" <mark....@lausd.net> wrote:
> A group of staff members apparently receive a Word document on a daily basis
> with links to articles available on-line through web sites of various
> newspapers. One site is LATIMES.COM. Recently these customers have been
> upgraded to OSX and Office for OSX. When the upgrades occurred, the ability
> to open links directly from a Word document stopped working.
>
> LATIMES.COM wants users to register before they can have the ability to access
> certain pages. If you sign up and login once, the browser stores a cookie
> with the account information which eliminates the need to login each time.
>
> Our customers click on a LATIMES.COM link and it launches the default browser
> (either Safari or IE) and attempts to connect to the page referenced in the
> link. For some reason, when it is initiated from MS Word, the LATIMES.COM
> cookie is not passed to the site. If I paste the link directly into the
> address bar of the browser, it works correctly.
>
> Has anyone experienced this problem before?
>
> Here are some notes from on what I have already done or observed so far to
> attempt to solve this issue:
>
> I was able to duplicate this issue on the G3 machine in my office using the
> Word file that was sent to me by the customer. (OSX 10.3.2 with latest
> software updates; Office for OSX with all available updates applied)
> * The problem appears to be only on the Mac platform. Specifically when using
> Word for OSX:
>
>> * Using the same document on my PC worked fine.
>> * If I restarted in OS9 and used Word 2001 it worked fine.
>> * If I launched Word 2001 on OSX (in classic mode) and then clicked on the
>> link in the document, IE 5.2 (from OSX) launches and correctly connects to
>> the document. (For some reason Safari failed on this test.)
>>
>
> * I tried it in OSX with both IE and Safari as my default browser and
> experienced the same problem. This leads me to believe it is not a browser
> problem. The problem seems to be in the interchange between MS Word for OSX
> and the browsers.
> * I did some preliminary web searches. I found one item relating to Word 98
Mark Pompey
below:
"Beth Rosengard" <bethro...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:BC80C8C7.39E1B%bethro...@earthlink.net...
> Hi Mark,
>
> I'm copying this to you directly because I thought you might have given up
> by now :-). You haven't been forgotten (however, when you reply, please
> post to the newsgroup so that this discussion stays in the archives).
>
> You described such peculiar behavior that I escalated your post to MS and
> they just came back with the following:
>
> > This is interesting behavior. Strange, to say the least. I am curious,
though,
> > If you move the link to any other application including PPT and Excel X
what
> > happens?
If I open the document in PowerPoint, it has the same problem. I can't open
directly in Excel because it wants to open Word. If I paste the links into
blank documents in each of those programs, it does the same thing.
>> Also is it just a problem with LATIMES.COM or other sites that
> > require log-ins? Couple of things to check out.
LATIMES.COM is the only one we tested because that is the only one that
requires us to login in to the "premium" section. But the problem is
occurs when I click on a link and it opens IE and then launches a new
Window. If I launch IE manually and paste the link into a new window, it
does not ask for a login.
Beth Rosengard
Could you please send me (directly) the Word document with the links that
started this whole thing. Thanks.
--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP
Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
On 3/22/04 5:52 PM, in article #oDVSmHE...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl, "Mark
Beth Rosengard
I received the document and passed it on to MS. They have already confirmed
that they *can* replicate this behavior in Word X (there's no problem in
Word 2001). So now we wait. It could take them a while to track it down
and decide how to deal with it. I'll let you know whatever/whenever I learn
anything but for now, your friends will have to cut and paste the URLs.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
--
Beth Rosengard
Mac MVP
Mac Word FAQ: <http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/WordMac/index.htm>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>
On 3/22/04 6:05 PM, in article BC84DB4E.3A07B%bethro...@earthlink.net,