SAVING | Word Annoyances: How to Fix the Most ANNOYING Things about Your Favorite Word Processor

TEMPLATES

Get Rid of Text in the Default Document

The Annoyance:

When I start Word, I get a document that already contains texta letter I wrote last month. I have to select the text and delete it before I can start working on my new document. The same thing happens when I click the New Blank Document button on the Standard toolbarthe document I get isn't blank at all.

The Fix:

You've somehow saved your document into Normal.dot , the global template that's always open when Word is running. In theory, it's hard to get text into Normal.dot unintentionally, but it seems to happen surprisingly often.

Choose Tools Options, click the File Locations tab, click the " User templates item in the list, and check the Location readout. If the readout is abbreviated to fit into the space, click the Modify button, click the "Look in" drop-down list, and note the full path to the folder. Then close the dialog boxes.

Choose File Open, navigate to the templates folder, choose "Document templates in the "Files of type" drop-down list, and open Normal.dot . Delete the offending text, choose File Save, and then choose File Close.

Create a Template for Each Document Type You Use Frequently

The Annoyance:

My work involves creating many documents in three basic types: letters , reports , and task lists. I seem to spend half my time performing the same actions over and over again.

The Fix:

Create a template for each type of document you need to create. Choose File New and click either "On my computer (in Word 2003) or "General templates" (in Word XP) in the New Document task pane to display the Templates dialog box. In Word 2000, choose File New to display the equivalent New dialog box.

Select the existing template on which you want to base the new template; for example, choose Blank Document if you want to start from scratch, or one of the letter templates if you need to create a letter. Select the Template option and click the OK button. Choose File Save and assign the new template a descriptive name . Save it in the default locationyour user templates folderunless you have a good reason to put it elsewhere.

Lay out and format the document, entering any text that all documents based on this template will need. For example, in the template for a customer service letter, you might enter the entire document except for the customer's address, the details of the complaint, and the response or resolution.

Use styles to apply formatting consistently throughout the document. (Chapter 4 discusses styles.)

Create AutoText and AutoCorrect entries for boilerplate text that doesn't specifically belong in any template. To continue the example of the customer service letter, you might create AutoCorrect entries for phrases or sentences that the customer service representatives will often need to enter without changes. (Chapter 3 covers bending AutoCorrect and AutoText to your will.)

Save the changes to the template, and then close it.

To create a document based on a template, open the Templates or New dialog box as described above. Select the template, and then click the OK button.

Tip: To create a template from an existing document, choose File

Save As, select Document Template in the "Save as type drop-down list, specify the name, and click the Save button. (Word automatically changes to your user templates folder when you select the Document Template item.) Templates and documents are almost exactly the same, except for the file extension.

Create a Document Based on an Existing Document

The Annoyance:

I often need to create new documents based on existing documents, but it's not worth creating templates. Copying the relevant parts from one document to another saves some time, but not that much.

The Fix:

In any version of Word, open the document and use File Save As to save it under a different name or in a different folder. Change the new document as necessary.

Word 2003 and Word XP provide another way to create a document based on an existing document. In Word 2003, choose File New and click "From existing document in the New Document task pane; in Word XP, choose File New and click "Choose document in the New Document task pane. In the New from Existing Document dialog box, select the document and click the Create New button.

Save a Preview for a Template

The Annoyance:

Most of the templates in the Templates dialog box have preview pictures. I want to add previews to my custom templates so that users can get an idea of what they're used for.

The Fix:

Open the template (choose File Open, or right-click the template in a Windows Explorer window and choose Open from the shortcut menu). Choose File Properties, click the Summary tab, check the "Save preview picture box, and then click the OK button. Save the template and close it.

Use a Template Outside Your Default Templates Folder

The Annoyance:

The Templates dialog box doesn't let you browse for templates that aren't located in the default folder.

The Fix:

The problem is that Word doesn't know where your templates are unless they're in one of its two templates folders: the user templates folder and the workgroup templates folder. Each of these folders can have as many subfolders as necessary.

Tip: The Templates dialog box is called the New dialog box in Word 2000, but it works the same way.

You can use Windows shortcuts to tell Word where your templates are:

To add a template to the General tab of the Templates/New dialog box, put a shortcut to the template in your user templates folder or your workgroup templates folder.
To add a folder of templates that will appear as a new tab in the Templates/New dialog box, put a shortcut to the folder in your user templates folder or your workgroup templates folder.

Warning: Depending on your security settings, Word may prevent you from running macros and VBA code in templates not stored in one of your templates folders.

By default, the user templates folder is set during installation to a folder within your user profile (for example, %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates ). The workgroup templates folder is not set during a conventional installation (although it can be set during a scripted installation)if you don't have a workgroup templates folder assigned and you can store your templates in one folder (or its subfolders), you can make that folder your workgroup folder. Choose Tools Options, click the File Locations tab, double-click the "Workgroup templates item, select the folder in the Modify Location dialog box, and then click the OK button twice. Your templates will then appear in the Templates/New dialog box (see Figure 2-1).

Figure 2-1. Designate the folder that contains your templates as your workgroup templates folder to make the templates appear in the Templates (or New) dialog box.

MANAGING YOUR TEMPLATE FOLDERS

There's a limited amount of space on the two rows of tabs in the Templates/New dialog box, so plan your template folders carefully . Here are a few guidelines:

To avoid having multiple tabs with the same names, do not duplicate names between the user templates folder and the workgroup templates folder.
Keep the number of template folders down so that they all fit into the dialog box.
Keep the folder names short if you need to fit more tabs into the dialog box. If the names won't fit, the Templates/New dialog box includes a tab named More that shows the remaining folders. You can double-click a folder in this tab to access the templates it contains. (This extra step makes accessing your templates a little slower.)

Another option is to create a document directly from a template. Open a Windows Explorer window to the folder that contains the template, and then double-click the template. (The default action in Windows for a Word template is to create a new document based on it, not to open the template. To open the template, right-click it and choose Open.)