Templates

[Dave Neve]

Hi

I'm trying to get my head around 'templates' by reading articles on the
MVPS.org site and I have a few questions.

1 An article says

"Creating an add-in is easy as pie. Create a new document, select File +
Save As, set the "Save as type" to "Document template (*.dot)"; browse to
your "Startup" folder and save it there. That's it".

and another one

"Add-ins stored in the Startup folder are loaded automatically when Word
starts"

I have tried installing a .dot file (template) there but it doesn't load
automatically
when I click 'new doc' in Word.

Can someone please explain what 'form' an add in should have. I know it's
..dot but is it a program or just a template?

Thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Dave,

An add-in is just a template (leaving out the complication that there can be
"COM add-ins", which are compiled programs written outside of Word) that's
stored in the Startup folder.

The part you're missing is that an add-in is loaded *when Word starts*, not
when you create a new document. After storing your add-in in the Startup
folder, you should shut down Word and restart it. (For temporary testing,
you could go to the Tools > Templates and Add-Ins dialog, click the Add
button, and select any template in any folder to be treated as an "add-in",
but it wouldn't be reloaded when you close and restart Word unless it was in
the Startup folder.)

The other thing about add-ins that many people don't "get" is that they
don't supply styles for documents. If they contain styles, those styles are
ignored. Add-ins are used to supply macros, toolbars, shortcut keys, and
AutoText entries.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

To expand on part of what Jay said: An add-in differs from a document
template in that it can provide toolbars, macros, AutoText, and shortcut
keys. But it does not provide styles or layout, and you don't base a
document on it. When you click the New button in Word, you still get a
document based on Normal.dot.

You *can* customize Normal.dot, but this is rarely a good idea. Instead, you
should create a document template that contains the styles and layout you
want. You save that in your templates folder (the same place Normal.dot is
stored), and then you select it when you want to create a document based on
it. This requires accessing the File New dialog (through the File | New
command or, in Word 2002, by selecting More Documents in the New Document
task pane) and selecting that template instead of just clicking the New
button.

If you want Word to start with a document based on your new template, you
can add a /t switch to the command used to start Word. For more on this, see
"Control what happens when you start Word." But this will still cover only
the first document. You'll still get a Blank Document based on Normal.dot
every time you click New. The best approach, therefore, is to substitute a
New... button for the New one, that is, a button that will open the File New
dialog and allow you to choose your preferred template. How you accomplish
this substitution varies depending on whether you're using Word 2002 or an
earlier version. Note that once you've used your template in Word 2002, it
will be listed on the New Document task pane, and you can just click it from
there.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
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