What good is a template?!

[Guest]

My ultimate goal is to create a template so that all training manuals created
by my company will have the same look.
So, I typed and saved what I thought was a template, then I inserted an
already written training manual into it, nothing happened. But, I did see
that all the styles that I had applied in my template could be seen and
accessed from the styles/formatting window. So as people type the manual,
they can apply those few styles to their text, titles, etc.
The problem is this: If they cut and paste anything into the document, it
sometimes changes the font of everything around it. I want to limit all text
within the document to the few styles that I saved in the template. Is this
possible? And again, what is the point of having a template? I have read so
much about the relationship between template and document, but still don't
get it.
Thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

My ultimate goal is to create a template so that all training manuals created
by my company will have the same look.
So, I typed and saved what I thought was a template, then I inserted an
already written training manual into it, nothing happened. But, I did see
that all the styles that I had applied in my template could be seen and
accessed from the styles/formatting window. So as people type the manual,
they can apply those few styles to their text, titles, etc.
The problem is this: If they cut and paste anything into the document, it
sometimes changes the font of everything around it. I want to limit all text
within the document to the few styles that I saved in the template. Is this
possible? And again, what is the point of having a template? I have read so
much about the relationship between template and document, but still don't
get it.
Thanks

The main point of a template is to supply styles *at the time you
create a new document based on that template*. As soon as that step is
complete, for most purposed the link between the document and the
template is severed (the exceptions being macros and AutoText that the
document can call from their storage in the template). The styles in
the document are independent clones of the ones in the template, and
then can be modified/applied/deleted without reference to the
template.

When a document is created from one template, and then a different
template is attached to it, you need to take extra action to update
the corresponding styles in the document. See this article for a
discussion:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/attachtemplate/index.html

The issue of copy/paste changing formatting is discussed here:
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styles/FormatOfTextChanges.html

 

[Guest]

Jay,
Thank you for your response, I will continue to read. Maybe what I want is
a macro. I can explain here what I am looking for, can you tell me if it is
a macro, userform, or a template that I want: Then, can you tell me where I
can get reference information for it?
I want writers of manuals to be able to open a blank word document, as they
type a manual, I want them to be able to click on a button that will produce
a field for their Chapter Heading(level1), they type it in, Click on a button
that will produce a field for them to type a level 2 subheading, click on a
button, they will get a bullet list, click on a button, they will get an area
to type body text.
I know this can be done, but does it take writing a "program", macro or what?
Thanks again!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can create a custom toolbar that has the styles you have defined (but
you'd be much better off using the built-in heading styles--see
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/numbering/UseBuiltInHeadingStyles.html

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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[Jay Freedman]

All of the things you listed are the result of applying STYLES. Styles
are the bedrock of any kind of standardized document preparation in
Word. The style dropdown in the Formatting toolbar is the tool you're
describing -- although it's possible to create a custom toolbar with a
separate button for each style you want the writers to use, and that
might be a good approach. Here's an article about that exact topic:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=262

Before you create the toolbar, though, modify the template to define
the styles the way you want them. Word comes with a couple of dozen
styles built in, but a lot of folks consider them to be ugly, or at
least not well suited to good documentation. You probably also want to
make styles with more descriptive names (such as "Chapter Title"
instead of "Heading 1"). There are a number of other issues you should
at least consider. This very long article covers a lot of ground:
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

I'm a big fan of macros and userforms, but you probably don't need
either of them unless there's something you want that isn't covered by
the standard mechanisms. If you do run into something you can't
handle, ask here. The answer is just as likely to be a field or
AutoText or something else that isn't a macro.

 

[Jezebel]

Not sure what you have in mind with 'button' and 'field' ... is this
anything other than selecting 'Heading 1', 'Heading 2', 'Bullet' etc from
the style list?