custom templates and documents based on template

[Shandy Elliott]

This is what I want to do, and for the life of me, I can't get it done or
find the solution online. I think I'm over-thinking the issue.

I created a "base" document with particular styles and colors (ie. tables)
with fields for client contact information - saved it as a template. I then
create other documents based on this template in which I actually fill out
the contact fields, then save those documents in respective client folders.

What I want now is if I need to update any part of the template (header,
footer, colors, etc), I want ALL other documents based on this template to be
updated whether I have to open these documents and click something or these
documents auto update.

Am I looking for a feature already in MS Word 2007, or is it a macro I need
to find, etc.? Please help...

 

[Jay Freedman]

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:56:01 -0700, Shandy Elliott <Shandy

This is what I want to do, and for the life of me, I can't get it done or
find the solution online. I think I'm over-thinking the issue.

I created a "base" document with particular styles and colors (ie. tables)
with fields for client contact information - saved it as a template. I then
create other documents based on this template in which I actually fill out
the contact fields, then save those documents in respective client folders.

What I want now is if I need to update any part of the template (header,
footer, colors, etc), I want ALL other documents based on this template to be
updated whether I have to open these documents and click something or these
documents auto update.

Am I looking for a feature already in MS Word 2007, or is it a macro I need
to find, etc.? Please help...

You can transfer updated *styles* from the modified template to one
document at a time. Quoting from
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/attachtemplate/index.html,

# You can copy styles from the document to its template, or vice
versa. To do that, Tools > Templates and Add-Ins. Click Organizer.

# You can update the document with its template's styles. To do that,
Tools > Templates and Add-Ins [note: this is for Word 2003; see below
for Word 2007]. Tick the Automatically Update Document Styles box.
Then, immediately go back and un-tick that box. Don't leave the box
ticked.

[Word 2007: First go to Office button > Word Options > Popular and
check the box to show the Developer tab of the ribbon. On that tab,
click Document Template to get the same dialog as in 2003.]

Every other possible change in the template will have to be copied
from the template and pasted into the documents.

It would be possible to write a macro to make these updates, but it
would have to be written specifically for the changes in that update
and modified again for later updates. One thing that makes this
especially difficult is that a document knows what template it's based
on, but the template *does not* know what documents are based on it.
You'd need some way to specify which documents need updating.