Customizing Built-in Error Messages

How to Set the Stage for Custom Error Messages

Before you’re ready to write the Active Server Pages (ASP) script that will handle your custom error messages, you must do some preparation. First, you collect the information that identifies the error message you want to customize. Then, you create a Web page with your custom information on it. After you’ve completed these steps, you can write the ASP script.

Collect relevant information about each error message

Before you implement custom error messages, you need to gather the following information about each error message. This information is required by the server-side script to process the messages correctly.

Error message number   Each error message is assigned a unique number per application. For example, error message number 2202 in Access is “You must install a printer before you design, print, or preview.” You need to know the error message number for each error message you plan to customize.

Toolbox   You can look up detailed information about custom error messages (including error numbers and error categories) in an Excel workbook named Errormsg.xls. For information about installing this workbook, see Customizable Alerts.

GUID   A globally unique identifier (GUID) identifies the application to which the error message belongs.

Country code   When custom error messages are localized, the ASP page uses the country code to determine the locale of Office 2000. Depending on your objective, the ASP page can use one or more of these country codes sent by Office 2000.

For example, if your organization uses only the U.S. English version of Office, you do not need to identify the country code. If you want to redirect all of the Word error messages to one page, you can fill in just the GUID. However, if you want to map a specific error message in a specific application, you must fill in both the error message number and the GUID.

Toolbox   The Office Resource Kit includes a file called ASPscrpt.xls to help you create your ASP script. The ASPscrpt.xls file also contains worksheets that list the GUIDs and country codes to use in creating your ASP script. For information about installing this file, see Customizable Alerts.

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Create Web pages to provide information about custom error messages

You must create Web pages to provide your users with custom information about error messages they encounter. For example, when a user encounters the “No printer found” error message and then clicks the button linked to your Web site, you must create the Web pages that describe how to solve the printer error problem.

You can also use one general Web page to handle multiple error messages. Using a single page might be the best solution if you have a number of error messages that require the same information. A single page is also the best solution if you don’t want to manage multiple ASP pages in a complicated implementation of custom error messages.

After you have created the HTML files, place them on your Web server and make a note of the paths so that you can reference them in your ASP file.

Toolbox   For simple implementations of customizable error messages, such as a general question and answer page, you can start with the following sample Web pages: Alert.asp, Alert.htm, Alert2.asp, Alert2a.asp, and NYI.htm. For information about installing these Web pages, see Customizable Alerts.