Creating template-based Word documents from Windows Explorer contextmenu, item "New"

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Prestidigitator

The feature to create a new blank Word document in the current folder
is very handy.
However, this blank document is always based on the Normal.dot
standard template.

When a customer rings and I want to make notes, I would like to
rapidly create a Word document in the customer's folder, that is based
on the "Telephone notes" template.

On other occasions, other templates would come handy. The Windows
Explorer context New menu should therefore look like this:

New ->
Word Document
Word Telephone Notes
Word Report
(Word ...)

For this purpose, I tried to add the extension '.doc_notes' to the New
menu, by creating the correspondent registry entry in
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and a .doc_notes file in C:\Windows\ShellNew. I had
previously associated the 'doc_notes' with MS Word in Explorer.
I also tried using TweakUI for this - all to no avail

Anybody knows how to achieve my goal? TIA

I'm running XP x64 SP2
 
In
Prestidigitator said:
The feature to create a new blank Word document in the
current folder is very handy.
However, this blank document is always based on the
Normal.dot standard template.

When a customer rings and I want to make notes, I would
like to rapidly create a Word document in the customer's
folder, that is based on the "Telephone notes" template.

On other occasions, other templates would come handy. The
Windows Explorer context New menu should therefore look
like this:

New ->
Word Document
Word Telephone Notes
Word Report
(Word ...)

For this purpose, I tried to add the extension
'.doc_notes' to the New menu, by creating the
correspondent registry entry in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and a
.doc_notes file in C:\Windows\ShellNew. I had previously
associated the 'doc_notes' with MS Word in Explorer.
I also tried using TweakUI for this - all to no avail

Anybody knows how to achieve my goal? TIA

I'm running XP x64 SP2
Click to expand...

Outlook's Journal is pretty good for that, or if you want more formal
layout, used the v-card or Outlook's Contact List.
Various free programs can be found around the 'net too but I've none to
recommend. Me, I use XP's Address Book. It has places for all the various
fields you might want. Or, just plain old Notepad or Wordpad, or NoteTAB Pro
or Notepad++, etc.

HTH,

Twayne`
 
For a start-off - Windows (XP) no-longer uses the [C:\WINDOWS\ShellNew]
folder for templates, but uses, instead, the default "Templates" directory
defined in the following registry value :

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders]
"Templates"=""

This directory is normally assigned to :
"C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Templates"


But that may not help you all the way, as even if you neglected to place a
templated file for your particular registry "ShellNew" entry, the file-type
*should* still appear anyway when you choose : "New" > "Filetype" from
the desktop right-click menu. Whether a template is present for it or not.

So the problem may be one of registry configuration.

Normally, you create a new entry in the "New" > "File" right-click menu, by
adding a "ShellNew" sub-key to the registry key of the same name as the
file extension, thus ;


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ext\ShellNew]


...(where you would replace .ext with your chosen file extension).

Then, under this new "ShellNew" key, add a new string value named, either,
"NullFile" which you would leave blank (no assigned value) and also does
not then require any associated templated file, but simply will create a
new file of size 0 [zero] bytes called ;

"New [file description].[file extension]"


Or; you can create a new string value named "Filename" to which you would
assign the name of the templated file that must exist in your "Templates"
directory (see top above). So that if the filename of the template in the
"Templates" folder is "telephone.doc_notes" then that also has to be
entered as the assigned value for "Filename" thus ;

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ext\ShellNew]
"FileName"="telephone.doc_notes"

This would usually result in a new entry under "New" > "File" on the
desktop right-click menu, and would use the file in the Templates folder of
the same name as the "FileName" string value.



If you have difficulty in visualising the registry entries, take a look at
one already in existence for comparison, say, ;

HKCR\.bmp\ShellNew

....for an example of "NullFile", or ;

HKCR\.wav\ShellNew

....for an example of the "FileName" value, where the set value:
"sndrec.wav" corresponds to a file that exists in the Templates directory.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :-)
 
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