Attaching a Template to the Active Document

You may encounter situations in which you need to change the template that's attached to a document. For example, you might click the New button in the Standard toolbar and type for a while in the new document before realizing that you had meant to base the document on a template other than Normal. Or someone may give you a document that is based on an older version of a template, and you want to update the document to the current version. Word lets you change the template that's attached to the active document with a few simple steps.

To attach a different template to the active document, follow these steps:

1. Open the document to which you want to attach the template.

2. Choose Tools, Templates and Add-Ins to display the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box (see Figure 7.9).

   Figure 7.9. Use the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box to attach a different template to the active document.

   

3. The currently attached template is listed in the Document Template text box. To change it, click the Attach button.

4. In the Attach Template dialog box that appears, navigate to the folder that contains the template you want to attach, and then double-click it.

5. Back in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box, the template you selected is now listed in the Document Template text box. If you want the styles in the document to update to the ones in the newly attached template, mark the Automatically Update Document Styles text box.

6. Click OK.

The styles, toolbars , AutoText entries, and macros in the newly attached template are now available in the active document. However, if the template you attached contains any text, the text will not be copied into the document.