Best way to put existing documents into new template (Word 2007)?

[Kathy]

With Word 2007, what is the best way to have users put their existing
documents into my new template?

They're used to moving text from one document to another by doing "Insert
Text From File." However, this will bring in styles from the original
document, and not update them to the template's styles.

I know I can control it on my own computer by either pasting the text as
Unformatted and then applying Styles, or changing the Word Option to Match
Destination Formatting. Is there an easier way to tell my users to do it?

Thank you. (by the way, please don't send me the shaunakelly.com links; I've
read them and they didn't address this questions, thx)

 

[Stefan Blom]

Using the Insert File dialog box is usually a quick way to reformat a
document. No manual work should be required. The assumption, of course, is
that the style names match in the source and target documents and that there
isn't a lot of direct formatting in the source document.

If style names do not match, a relatively simple find and replace operation
would take care of that.

Direct formatting can also be handled via find and replace, but you may find
it easier to manually apply styles to text.

 

[Kathy]

Stefan, thanks for your response. I am using custom Style names in the
template. When I do Insert File, I end up with the styles from the old
document and styles from the new template -- it's a mess.

Is it easiest then, when making a template, to only stick to the default
Word Style names? (e.g. Heading 1, Heading 2)

 

[Stefan Blom]

Being consistent is certainly helpful when you need to reformat document
contents, especially via the Insert File dialog box.

But as long as you are being consistent, it really doesn't matter if you use
built-in or custom styles. (There is an exception to that "rule": It is a
good idea to make use of the built-in *heading* styles, because they have
special properties; see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html.)