... A different default templte possible?

[LadyDungeness]

I'm using Word XP.
I want to have it open to my own template "MY TEMPLATE" -- not the Normal template.
I also want to change the keyboard shortcut ^N so that MY TEMPLATE opens (not the Normal temlate).
Is this possible?


Lady Dungeness
Out of Danger until September
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes (sort of) to the first and yes (via a macro) to the second. You can
start Word with any template you like. The easiest way to do this is just to
put a shortcut to the template on your desktop, but you can also do it using
a command line that includes the /t switch; see "How to use startup command
line switches to start Word 2003, Word 2002, and Word 2000" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=210565

Even if you start with a document based on your template, the New Document
button and Ctrl+N shortcut will still create a new document based on Normal
dot unless you reassign them to a macro that opens a new document based on
your template. Someone here can probably help you with writing such a macro,
or you could record it; see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/UsingRecorder.htm

All of this assumes that your personal template is significantly different
from Normal.dot or contains customizations you don't want to introduce into
Normal.dot (which can be wise). If the changes are minimal, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CustomizeNormalTemplate.htm

 

[Jay Freedman]

I'm using Word XP.
I want to have it open to my own template "MY TEMPLATE" -- not the
Normal template.
I also want to change the keyboard shortcut ^N so that MY TEMPLATE
opens (not the Normal temlate). Is this possible?


Lady Dungeness
Out of Danger until September
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

According to http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=210565 ("How to use startup
command line switches") you can use the /t switch on the command line of the
Run command box or a desktop shortcut to open Word with a document based on
a template other than Normal.dot. The /t should be followed by the name of
the template to use. By experiment, I'm finding that Word isn't happy with
just the template's filename, even if the template is stored in the User
Templates folder. Including the full path to the file, with the whole path
and name enclosed in double quotes, does work. Look at the "Method notes"
section of the article for an example.

Changing the Ctrl+N shortcut is a little more complex, because you need a
macro. There are two ways to go about this:

1. You can redefine the FileNewDefault command (which is what Ctrl+N runs)
by giving the macro that name:

Sub FileNewDefault()
Documents.Add Template:="alternative.dot"
End Sub

The drawback is that if you want to base a document on Normal.dot, you now
have to go to the File > New dialog and select the Blank Document icon.

2. You can give the macro a different name that doesn't correspond to any
built-in command:

Sub FileNewAlternative()
Documents.Add Template:="alternative.dot"
End Sub

Then assign a different shortcut to the FileNewDefault command and assign
Ctrl+N to your macro. That way you have shortcuts to both templates.

See http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm if needed.

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

 

[LadyDungeness]

Thank you both for your help. I'll do some reading ...

A lot of my customizations have to do with toolbars. If anything corrupts the Normal template, then I lose all my toolbars.
So if I made a MY TEMPLATE I can keep my customized toolbars in there.

I'm finding it is not that easy to customize new toolbars. I can't find any way to copy a command from an existing toolbar
and paste it into another one. I have to go back to the toolbar customization dialog box instead and dig around in there to
find the command I want, and then drag it to my new toolbar.

I'm also having some difficulty using different toolbars on different templates. I have a Greek template, a Spanish
template, and a Japanese template. I also have several templates for legal documents. Each should have its own set of
toolbars, though many of the basic commands will be duplicated.

Arrrrgh!


Lady Dungeness
Out of Danger until September
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For that you don't need a custom default template; you just need a global
add-in. You can add custom toolbars, menus, macros, and AutoText entries to
a template, place it in Word's Startup folder, and have access to all of
them in every document. The only thing you need a document template for is
document-level formatting such as margins, page size and orientation,
headers, footers, and other standard text, styles, etc. See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm