Cannot attach Template to existing precedents in Word 2007

[Greg Sparling]

A few years ago we created an entire library of Word precedents and formatted
them using Styles based on our own Custom Template. We then distributed these
precedents and the Template to thousands of users.

In versions of Word prior to Word 2007 we were able to change one of the
styles in the Template and have that change affect all of our precedents in a
particular office by ensuring that the Template was installed into Word’s
Template folder for each user as defined in Tools / File Locations.

(Usually the only change we would be asked to make by our users was to the
default font in the precedents. Not everyone can live with Times New Roman
12!)

We are unable to do anything similar in Word 2007. The Template does not
appear to attach to the precedents.

Any suggestions?

 

[Stefan Blom]

It is not sufficient to attach a new template. You must also have the
"Automatically update document styles" option checked in the Templates and
Add-Ins dialog box for the document.

 

[Greg Sparling]

Thanks, Stefan, for the suggestion, but we selected “Automatically update
document styles" in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog for each of our
precedents when we first created the precedents in 2004.

I have made some more tests which seem to indicate that there is a problem
with Word 2007, but of course I am open to suggestions as to what I might be
doing wrong!

(this is also running in Vista, but I do not believe it is the issue)

In any case, my tests were based on creating 3 identically named Templates,
each with a different colored Font for easy viewing of the results.

I located these Templates in the following 3 locations, then removed them
from one or two of the locations to observe the results:
1. The same Folder as the precedents that rely upon the Template
2. The Folder where the Template and the precedents were originally created
(on a mapped drive of a server within our network) four years ago.
3. The Templates Folder as defined by Word 2007

Unless the Template is in location #2, the Font is based on the style within
the precedent. ie it is not affected by any other Template! The problem, of
course, is our users cannot possibly have location #2.

Oddly, if the Template is in location #2 and #3, the Font is based on the
style in location #3.

In other words, the Template’s presence in location #2 is critical to the
Styles being adopted from location #3. And in older versions of Word,
location #3 was the only one we needed. (Actually, I retested this in Word
2003 too, and found that Word 2003 seems to be even more accomodating than it
was previously. We only need the Template in location #1 for changes to its
Font to affect the Templates that rely upon it - which strikes me as being
the best solution)

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

Actually Vista may be the "cause", since full path names often differ between
XP and Vista. I don't have Vista, but I did see earlier today these two
examples of how to get to the same feature:

Vista— C:\Users\user name\AppData\ ...

XP— C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\ ...

PamC

Thanks, Stefan, for the suggestion, but we selected “Automatically update
document styles" in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog for each of our
precedents when we first created the precedents in 2004.

I have made some more tests which seem to indicate that there is a problem
with Word 2007, but of course I am open to suggestions as to what I might be
doing wrong!

(this is also running in Vista, but I do not believe it is the issue)

In any case, my tests were based on creating 3 identically named Templates,
each with a different colored Font for easy viewing of the results.

I located these Templates in the following 3 locations, then removed them
from one or two of the locations to observe the results:
1. The same Folder as the precedents that rely upon the Template
2. The Folder where the Template and the precedents were originally created
(on a mapped drive of a server within our network) four years ago.
3. The Templates Folder as defined by Word 2007

Unless the Template is in location #2, the Font is based on the style within
the precedent. ie it is not affected by any other Template! The problem, of
course, is our users cannot possibly have location #2.

Oddly, if the Template is in location #2 and #3, the Font is based on the
style in location #3.

In other words, the Template’s presence in location #2 is critical to the
Styles being adopted from location #3. And in older versions of Word,
location #3 was the only one we needed. (Actually, I retested this in Word
2003 too, and found that Word 2003 seems to be even more accomodating than it
was previously. We only need the Template in location #1 for changes to its
Font to affect the Templates that rely upon it - which strikes me as being
the best solution)

It is not sufficient to attach a new template. You must also have the
"Automatically update document styles" option checked in the Templates and

[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]

 

[Greg Sparling]

Thanks, Pam.

The exact folders we are talking about are:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
Vista: C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I would not be very surprised if that is the problem; but I have no idea how
to test it. I tried creating a new folder in the root of C: on the Vista PC
called “Documents and Settingsâ€, but Vista gave me the message:

Move Folder
The files in New Folder will be moved to C:\Users

I got a similar message trying to create “Application Data†in USER_NAME.

It appears that Vista has a hidden function for converting XP settings which
is blocking such creations of new folders. Of course, even if we could create
these folders and run more tests, I am not sure it would help solve the
problem.

Any other ideas?

Actually Vista may be the "cause", since full path names often differ between
XP and Vista. I don't have Vista, but I did see earlier today these two
examples of how to get to the same feature:

Vista— C:\Users\user name\AppData\ ...

XP— C:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\ ...

PamC

Thanks, Stefan, for the suggestion, but we selected “Automatically update
document styles" in the Templates and Add-Ins dialog for each of our
precedents when we first created the precedents in 2004.

I have made some more tests which seem to indicate that there is a problem
with Word 2007, but of course I am open to suggestions as to what I might be
doing wrong!

(this is also running in Vista, but I do not believe it is the issue)

In any case, my tests were based on creating 3 identically named Templates,
each with a different colored Font for easy viewing of the results.

I located these Templates in the following 3 locations, then removed them
from one or two of the locations to observe the results:
1. The same Folder as the precedents that rely upon the Template
2. The Folder where the Template and the precedents were originally created
(on a mapped drive of a server within our network) four years ago.
3. The Templates Folder as defined by Word 2007

Unless the Template is in location #2, the Font is based on the style within
the precedent. ie it is not affected by any other Template! The problem, of
course, is our users cannot possibly have location #2.

Oddly, if the Template is in location #2 and #3, the Font is based on the
style in location #3.

In other words, the Template’s presence in location #2 is critical to the
Styles being adopted from location #3. And in older versions of Word,
location #3 was the only one we needed. (Actually, I retested this in Word
2003 too, and found that Word 2003 seems to be even more accomodating than it
was previously. We only need the Template in location #1 for changes to its
Font to affect the Templates that rely upon it - which strikes me as being
the best solution)

It is not sufficient to attach a new template. You must also have the
"Automatically update document styles" option checked in the Templates and

[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]

Any suggestions?

 

[PamC via OfficeKB.com]

So, if you go to a Vista user's computer and look in the appropriate
templates folder, is your template there? And when you go to Developer
ribbon > document template, does the templates and add-ins dialog show the
correct path and file name for your template? If both are correct, then I
have no idea where to look next. If one or the other is not right, you'll
know what to fix.

PamC

Thanks, Pam.

The exact folders we are talking about are:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\USER_NAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
Vista: C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

I would not be very surprised if that is the problem; but I have no idea how
to test it. I tried creating a new folder in the root of C: on the Vista PC
called “Documents and Settingsâ€, but Vista gave me the message:

Move Folder
The files in New Folder will be moved to C:\Users

I got a similar message trying to create “Application Data†in USER_NAME.

It appears that Vista has a hidden function for converting XP settings which
is blocking such creations of new folders. Of course, even if we could create
these folders and run more tests, I am not sure it would help solve the
problem.

Any other ideas?

Actually Vista may be the "cause", since full path names often differ between
XP and Vista. I don't have Vista, but I did see earlier today these two

[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]