Chapter 15: Templates and Desktop Publishing

---

I actually “ran into” Word and immediately had to dive into this area of it. I’d been hired to create many manuals. For 2-½ years, all I did was format templates and documents. When I started that job, I had no clue how to use Word. I’d been a WordPerfect user. (Yes. I admit it.)

If you are reading this section, then I strongly encourage you to also read the section on Styles on page 9-1. Styles are an integral part of creating a great template.

Word Templates

Templates are often misunderstood. People create a “boilerplate” document and they use it over and over. They call it a template. Word does not. Word only considers a template a “real” template if the document has been saved as a document template (*.DOT) file. Using a document like a template and changing the file extension does NOT make Word treat your template properly.

There was once a virus that caused Word templates to behave improperly. After that, many people who did not use Word’s template feature properly blamed the problems on the virus when, in fact, they were opening the templates and saving them, and complaining that they could not then save them as documents.

A true template has been saved as a document template. It is accessed by using File New and double-clicking it, or it is doubleclicked via Windows Explorer. When either of these occurs, a proper template creates a copy of itself and has a default name like any other document of Document1, Document2 or whichever new document you’re creating in this session of Word.

Tip 28: Make Desktop Shortcuts to your Templates

Perhaps you use various templates regularly and don’t like having to hit File New to access them.

Go to Tools Options, File locations tab. Note the location of your User Templates. Using Windows Explorer, browse to that folder. Right-click the template you use most and choose Copy. Right-click your Desktop, and choose Paste Shortcut. You can then rightclick the shortcut and choose Rename to give it any name you want.

If you open a document template and try to save it as a document, you’ll be disappointed—it’s not possible.

Tip 29: Change a Template to a Document

So, what do you do when you’ve already accidentally created a new document in your actual template file? Of course, you don’t want to lose it, but you don’t want to overwrite your template either.

Save the template—as a template—to a new name. Do not attempt to save it elsewhere. Close the template. Hit File New and choose your new template. Save the file as a document. Delete the newly created template.

Workgroup Templates

Do not forget that if you expect others to be able to view the document in the same manner as you do, they must have access to the template. Choose Tools Options File Locations; then choose Workgroup templates to find the location in which you want to store them.

If you don't have one, ask your network administrators to give you a shared location for this purpose, enter that location in the Workgroup templates box (on everybody's PC) and then store the templates in that folder. They'll show up when you hit File New.

---