Save templates in a common folder?

[Guest]

Can templates be saved in a 'common' folder on a server for easy access by
others? And.....can they then be saved in the same folder after changes were
made (consider a questionnaire.....others answer the questions which has
changed the template somewhat)?

 

[Tony Jollans]

You can set up a Workgroup Templates folder and point everybody to it via
Tools > Options > File Locations - exactly how you can best set this up for
all users depends a little on how you are set up athe moment; it is not
necessarily easy if you don't already have some sort of central control in
place but it is possible to devise a process to do it via a logon script.

What you shouldn't have, however, is lots of users making regular changes to
templates and I wonder from your post if, in fact, you are using a Word
Template at all. If what you actually have is a Document then the situation
is a bit different - and if what you're really doing is information
gathering then Word is probably not the right tool except, perhaps, as a
front end.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Can templates be saved in a 'common' folder on a server for easy access by
others? And.....can they then be saved in the same folder after changes were
made (consider a questionnaire.....others answer the questions which has
changed the template somewhat)?

Hi Sue,

Let's separate this into two questions:

1. Yes, you can put the templates into a folder on a server. Have each
user go to the Tools > Options > File Locations dialog in Word, select
the Workgroup Templates item, click the Modify button, and select the
folder on the server. Those templates will show up in the File > New
dialog, the same as templates on their own computers.

2. When you use the File > New dialog and select the template,
wherever it is, you get a new document based on the template,
containing empty form fields. Nothing you type into the document will
change the template -- that's the whole point of using a template.

It sounds like you're used to using File > Open to open the template
itself and entering the data there. Don't do that! In fact, if others
are used to doing that, it may be useful to use Windows Explorer to
turn on the Read Only property of the template on the server, so they
can't accidentally overwrite it with their changes.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thank you to both you and Tony. This site is just awesome. I have learned
so much from all of you and really appreciate it.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Use the workgroup templates folder on a network. For more on the different
kinds of templates, tabs on the file new dialog, and locations of templates
folders see http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide


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