Applying a template -- Word 2007

[bjm]

How can I apply a template to a document?
ISTM there was such a specific command in previous version(s) of Word but I
can't find it in 2007.

I want to apply a template to a document that's in another (or nothing
special) template format (with a different set of paragraph styles & so on).
I don't want to have to cut & paste the entire thing into a "new doc"
created with my template.

Thanks for any help. Searching "help" didn't help; I probably searched for
the wrong thing, it's probably under something entirely else but I can't
think what.
bj

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can access the classic Templates and Add-ins dialog from the Templates
button on the Developer tab if you have that displayed. If not, you'll need
to take the long way round: Office Button | Word Options | Add-ins. At the
bottom of the dialog, select Templates in the Manage... dropdown and click
Go...

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

 

[bjm]

You can access the classic Templates and Add-ins dialog from the Templates
button on the Developer tab if you have that displayed. If not, you'll
need to take the long way round: Office Button | Word Options | Add-ins.
At the bottom of the dialog, select Templates in the Manage... dropdown
and click Go...

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

Thank you!

This appears to be yet another instance of MS deciding that hiding things
from users is the thing to do. It didn't occur to me to try looking around
"developer" for template choices (& if it had, what I wanted would probably
have been somewhere even more obscure), and "help" wasn't any when I
searched for apply, change, or use template, although create shows up fairly
near the top of those "results".

Somehow I never thought that applying a (different) template was such an
advanced task that it needed to be hidden from less exalted users -- I'm
sure I'm not the only mere mortal who has started with the wrong template &
just wanted to apply the right one. I don't understand why that is a
"developer" task like some of the others listed.

Do the usability experts at MS make a special effort to find out how people
do things or where they expect (or hope) to find menu choices so they can
then make it more difficult, or what?

I do have Developer tab displayed, but if I didn't I wouldn't know why -- or
what relegated me to the "non-developer-tasks-only" ranks. Is that tab
something that isn't always displayed -- & why wouldn't it be?
Thanks again.
bj

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The Developer tab is not displayed by default (there's a check box at Word
Options | Popular to display it), and its contents are, by and large,
considered tools not used by casual end users.

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

 

[bjm]

Well, I don't know how it got checked on my setup, but it is. I wouldn't
have considered myself a "developer" or that making a simple template was
"authoring", let alone that merely wanting to *apply* a template came under
such advance use!
(I don't do macros, never having had any success with even modest efforts, &
I don't know what xml means)

MS has some strange ideas.
And/or I'm just strange myself.

But no wonder I do so many things by the "brute force" method -- the
so-called easy way is way too hard to even find! (and "help" doesn't.)

The Really Funny Thing is that until v. 2007 I managed to figure out just
about everything I actually needed to *do* & get it done without tearing out
my hair. V. 2007 has been brilliantly constructed to drive me (& I suspect
not *just* me) nutz.
Thanks again for your help.
bj

 

[Palmilla]

Ms. Barnhill,
Thank you for the time you took to write me this response. I am not able to
work on Word until later in the evening, but I wanted to thank you and will
give it a go later .

Linda

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Be assured you are not alone in finding Word 2007 difficult to navigate. The
general impression from the outset was that it would make "advanced"
features more "discoverable" for the average (and especially beginning) user
but that it would be a general pain for power users who knew where
everything was on every menu. That has proved true to some extent, with the
added downside that average/beginning users are lured into using features
they don't know how to use. Yes, it's very easy to add a cover sheet,
header, TOC, or watermark, but when you change your mind, trying to remove
or modify it is not so easy. And some features are much more complicated
even for power users, who have to figure out how to do things "manually"
instead of using the glitzy shortcuts (how to insert a simple page number,
for example, that won't erase an existing header).

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

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You're very welcome.

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

 

[Palmilla]

Ok, I missing a step here.

This is what I have done.

I have accessed the "long way around"
Office - Word Option - Add-ins - Selected Templates in the Manage dropdown
and click go…
But where do you go from there?
Thanks
Linda

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I was assuming you already knew how to attach a template. Navigate to the
template you want to attach and click Attach...

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