EBS RTF Template Editor for Word 2010 – Report from OOW11

Another topic that has gotten some attention in a couple of the EBS specific BIP sessions I’ve attended this week regards the BIP Desktop RTF Template Builder plug-in for Word.  In short, EBS uses an embedded version of BIP which does not get updated as much as the standardized BIP Enterprise.  Because of this version difference, EBS users need to use an older version of the RTF Template builder (Patch 12395372) to ensure compatibility.  This older version does NOT currently support Word 2010, a standard that a lot of companies are moving to and are now running into problems.  One user reported that this caused a major disruption to their report development after their IT staff made the switch.  They had to scramble to get a PC to setup with an older version of Office to make simple changes which was not an easy task as the company policy had been set.

Unfortunately, this post does not bring any good news on this topic.  The only thing to report is that Oracle BIP Product Management appears to be VERY aware of the problem and stated that a solution is being worked on. Per the standard Oracle safe harbor notice, there is no timeline for this solution to be released.  One that thing that would help, much like my previous report on the data template editor, is to log an enhancement.  Be sure to let them know what version of Word 2010 you are running (32 or 64bit) as well.

Off to a keynote…