Word templates in doc vs separate

[Guest]

Assuming I made the bone head move of saving the template with the doc, is
there a way to update the global template with the template saved with the
doc?

With the quirks of the normal style and list behavior...I have had to make
numerous updates to the template with the doc. Ie things like word deciding
to make the entire doc one big list, different behaviors when tracking
changes, etc.

Note both templates in question are mine...not normal.dot

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?dm9qbw==?=,

Assuming I made the bone head move of saving the template with the doc, is
there a way to update the global template with the template saved with the
doc?

With the quirks of the normal style and list behavior...I have had to make
numerous updates to the template with the doc. Ie things like word deciding
to make the entire doc one big list, different behaviors when tracking
changes, etc.

Note both templates in question are mine...not normal.dot

I'm having trouble following the scenario... You created a document from a
template. And you made some changes in the document that propagate back to the
template (you get a prompt to save changes to xxx.dot)? And you answered Yes?

But what do you mean, then, by the "global template"?

And which version of Word are we dealing with?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Guest]

So I have a template saved separate as "mytmplate.dot"

I made a doc...and chose to save "mytmplate.dot" with the doc
I made some changes to the template (to address words' wild behavior with
lists)
and saves to template. I assume its saved with the copy attached to the doc.

How do I get this updated template back to the separate copy
"mytmplate.dot" sitting in the template space.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi vojo

So I have a template saved separate as "mytmplate.dot"

I made a doc...and chose to save "mytmplate.dot" with the doc

It's not clear what you mean: if you have a template, the normal way to
proceed from there is to create a new document based on this template (a
double-click on the *.dot file will do that, for instance).

I made some changes to the template (to address words' wild behavior with
lists) and saves to template. I assume its saved with the copy attached to the doc.

There's no copy. You have either created the document from this template
in the first place (see above), or attached the template to it later on
(Tools | Templates and Add-ins). But it's no copy, it's the real *.dot file.

The only things you can easily chance _and_ "play back" to the template
are styles. If you have changed styles, saved the document, and answered
"yes" to Word's prompt to play back these changes to the attached
template, then your changes are part of the template now. Otherwise,
they are not.

How do I get this updated template back to the separate copy
"mytmplate.dot" sitting in the template space.

You only have one template, not one and a copy.

HTH
Robert

 

[Guest]

Well it aint working that way.

Got 3 docs...all started from same template.
Made the bone head move (so others could have template handy) to save
template with each doc. Needed to update the template (cause word behaviors
with lists is not obvious to me at least) in doc 1. Saved the doc and said
yes to save template changes (style changes were checked to add to template).
Open doc 2 or 3, and they have the original template settings were in play.

So in essence, I have 1 doc that behaves better (will not say perfect since
lists in word is like chasing a ghost) and 2 docs that behave less than
better.

So I thought I needed to get the separate template updated and wondered if I
can detach or copy to it more globally than style by style. I guess I could
go thru that panel that lets me move styles to templates but seem tedious.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Got 3 docs...all started from same template.
Made the bone head move (so others could have template handy) to save
template with each doc.

I have no idea what that means -- what exactly did you do??

Needed to update the template (cause word behaviors
with lists is not obvious to me at least) in doc 1. Saved the doc and said
yes to save template changes (style changes were checked to add to template).
Open doc 2 or 3, and they have the original template settings were in play.

Aha, now I see your problem. No, whenever you create a document, it gets
all the styles from the template. They are independent. Apart from the
Organizer which you know, there's one predefined mechanism for playing
back changes from a document's style to the temple (which you've also
found), and one for the other direction (changes from the template to
the document). This can be found in Tools | Templates and Add-Ins:
"Automatically Update ...".

You can check this for your purpose. It's not recommended that you leave
it checked (esp. not if you intend to send a document around to somebody
else, namely w/o the template, as it will then most likely attach itself
to normal.dot and your styles go havoc ).

Take a look at the templates articles on Shauna Kelly's site:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/index.html

HTH
Robert

 

[Guest]

ok...thanks...but note that playback is just this side of a root canal since
it tends to munge the document and the document is way to0 big to walk
through all over again. Style names between the saved with doc template and
base template the sin fact devil is in the details, but basically only 5
styles are changed)

Will just muscle through

sure would have been nice if word designers thought this through
(even something as simple as a help entry stating the ugly trap you get into
with this).

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi Robert,

Apart from the
Organizer which you know, there's one predefined mechanism for playing
back changes from a document's style to the temple (which you've also
found), and one for the other direction (changes from the template to
the document). This can be found in Tools | Templates and Add-Ins:
"Automatically Update ...".

When numbering is involved you really don't want to use recommend this...

It was created before Word 97 and doesn't handle the new numbering well.

Cindy Meister

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Cindy

When numbering is involved you really don't want to use recommend this...

It was created before Word 97 and doesn't handle the new numbering well.

You mean, it brings over the style but maybe not the list template?

Hmm, I never ran into trouble with it. But I doubt I ever used it in a
situation where the list template was not named in the style (and with
the same id in both template and document, i.e., I sure did not change
it ).

Greetings
Robert