Templates

A template is a Word document that stores the data you need to create documents of a similar type. When you customize Word by defining styles, modifying the toolbar or creating macros, you're most likely customizing a template. Thus, you can have different styles, toolbars and macros available for papers, handouts, letters, and memos. Templates can also include document text, such as the address and salutation in a letter, or your name, affiliation and a date field at the top of a handout.

Structurally, a template is a document just like any other — that is, the file format and the kinds of data it contains are exactly like a normal Word document. A document that is created from a template essentially starts with a copy of the template, so (by default) changes you make subsequently to the document don't affect the template, and vice versa. There are ways to override this default behavior, however.

By default, templates are stored in a subdirectory of the Word program directory. I usually put mine somewhere else, since I want to make sure they get backed up regularly. Backing up your templates is the only way to save your macros, styles and toolbars, so it's highly recommended. To change the directory where templates are stored, choose Tools | Options | File locations and double-click the path name after Templates and add-ins.

Creating and modifiying a template

To create a template, just start a normal document. It becomes a template when you save it with the extension “.dot” instead of “.doc”. I usually create a template by creating a document of the type I want (e.g. a memo), getting everything formatted the way I want it (defining appropriate styles for the various parts), and saving it. Then I delete the body text and use File | Save As to save it as a template.

You can edit a template by opening it in Word with File | Open; specify the file extension “.dot” to see only template files. Then you can simply edit it like any other document. NB: editing a template does not automatically change styles etc. in documents that have already been created with the template (see below).

The default template: Normal.dot

Even if you never specify a template when you create a document, your document is still attached to a template called “Normal.dot”. This file is stored in your default template directory. If you delete it, it will reappear (it is recreated with default settings by the program). It's useful to know about, since if you want to copy settings such as styles and macros to another computer, or back them up, you can do it by backing up this file.

Normal.dot is a global template, which means that the customizations it contains will be available to all documents, no matter what template they're attached to. Other templates can also be made global (see below). If you do a lot of customization, it's probably a good idea to save your work to a different global template: because of Word's habit of recreating Normal.dot if it can't find it, your customized version can easily get accidentally overwritten.

Using a template

To create a new document using anything but “Normal.dot”, you must use the File | New menu command to start the file. (Unless you’ve customized things, other methods of starting a file — e.g. clicking the “New” button or typing Ctrl-N — simply open a file with the default template, rather than giving you a choice.) You get a tabbed dialog which lets you choose a template. You can modify the tabs and their contents by rearranging the subdirectories of your templates directory.

When you use a template in this fashion, you are essentially creating a copy of the template file. This means that subsequent changes to the template will not automatically be reflected in the document. Some changes made to the document, however, can be saved to the template. See customization for details.

To change the template a document is associated with, choose Tools | Templates and Add-Ins, click the Attach button, and find the template you want. If you want to update the styles in your current document, make sure the Automatically update document styles box is checked.

You can also use this dialog box to make a template “global”. That means that its styles, macros etc. will be available to all templates. Click the Add button under Global Templates and Add-ins to add it to the list of global templates. Then check the box by the template to make its data available to all documents.

It is also possible to move styles, toolbars, macros etc. between templates. Click the Organizer button in Templates and Add-ins. You will see two list boxes, with a file name under each one. Use the Close and Open buttons to make sure one of the file names is the document you want to copy from, and the other is the document you want to copy to (it doesn’t matter which is which). There are tabs for styles, toolbars, and macros. Select the items you want to copy in one list box and click the arrow to copy them to the other.