Installning templates

[Magnus]

Hello
We have made some templates that we would like to distribute to several
users in our network. We have no central server we can put them on so every
user has to install them on their own comp. We had thought that we should
share them through our intranet and the users from there could open them in
Word and then do a "Save as template". Unfortunately when doing so, they
loose all macros, keyboard shorcuts, autotext and toolbars that is embedded
in the template. When the template is first opened it's all there but as
soon it's saved as .dot the functions are gone. If we manually put the
template in the template folder everything works as long as the user don't
make any modification to the template, then all the above mentioned
functions is removed. Has this something to do with network rights or is it
some setting in Word I'm overlooking? Appriciate any help.

Magnus
Halmstad, Sweden

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you sure you're saving the macros, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, etc.,
in the specific template and not in Normal.dot (the default save location)?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Magnus]

Yes I'm very sure.
Magnus

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are users opening the template itself or a document based on it?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Graham Mayor]

The users should be opening and creating documents based on the template,
not opening the template itself. I would be inclined to protect the document
templates to keep the users off them.


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Graham Mayor - Word MVP
E-mail (e-mail address removed)
Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
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[Magnus]

We thought that we could let the users open the template from our intranet,
bringing it up in word as a document, then save it as a template to their
own machine. When they open it from the intranet everything is still there,
macros, autotext, toolbars, but the moment they save it as a template
locally, macros, autotext and so on is gone. So when they open a new file
from File-New threre is only text in the template. If we manually put the
template in the template folder they can use it through File-New but if they
change anything, i.e. some templates should contain contact info, and saves
it as a template, the extra functions disappears again.

I'm beginning to suspect that this is the way Word works. I have tested this
on several computers, both inside and outside our network, and the same
thing happens everywhere. As I see it now we have to find out a way to place
the templates directly in the template folders and if the users shall make
any changes to the template, they will have to open it through File-New-Open
as template. That keeps the extra functions when they later saves it. If so,
is there anybody who has any suggestions on whats the best way to place the
templates directly in the template folder. The folder is usually hidden
rather deep down in the Documents and settings directory and we have about
100 users, many wich has limited computer experience. The search path is not
identical on all machines either.

Thanks for your efforts so far, it's much appreciated and I hope you can
give me some hints on how to make this work

Magnus

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Documents do not inherit the macros, toolbars, AutoText, etc., from
templates (if they did, they'd all be huge, and there'd be inherent
conflicts), so even if you save a document as a template, you don't get
them. If you create a new *template* based on the template, it should
inherit these things. FWIW, if you have Word 2002 or above, it is a great
help to add the Templates folder to the Places Bar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.