Loading temp\lates? Grrrrrrrrrr!

[Geoff]

I've finally been forced to switch to Office 2007 and unhappy about it I
truly am. The interface for most of the applications has changed radically
and now I am forced to hunt for simple things that I regularly use. My
productivity has dropped substantially. It sure would be nice if Microsoft
would give the option of the previous interfaces. These interfaces are awful
and whoever is responsible for them should be tied to a pole and summarily
shot.

Enough of my rant.

Anyhoo...so I have developed many templates in Word/Excel previous versions
that I regularly use. Of course, Microsoft had to change the extension for
templates. But that's not really my problem, I think. I can't seem to figure
out how to use them. In Word 2003, all I had to do was specify the file
location for my templates and I was off and running.

Well, like everything else, I searched and searched through Word 2007 for
how to specify my template file. I finally went to Help and it said I needed
to load each template individually by going to Word Options, then to the
Add-Ins tab, then Manage: Templates, then to the Templates tab in the
Templates and Add-Ins dialog and from there specify each template
individually. Is that right? Is it really that difficult? It seems sort of
ridiculous.

So fine. I did all that with all my old templates and when I went to use
them for a New document, I was not really surprised that I couldn't see them
in any of the template tabs in the New Document dialog since they are all
..dot files, not .dotx. So I saved one as a .dotx, loaded it, and still
couldn't see it. As far as I can tell, I have to open up my template once and
then it will be displayed as a Recently Used Template. Well, what the heck is
the point of doing all that garbage loading templates?

For any who have been patient enough to wade through this rant, I thank you.
For those that didn't and are thinking that I'm a complete moron, I
apologize. I'm sure it's not as hard as all this and I am rerally trying to
be self-sufficient and get up to speed with Office 2007. But, honestly, my
level of frustration is higher now than it has ever been with Microsoft.

Peace.

 

[grammatim]

I've finally been forced to switch to Office 2007 and unhappy about it I
truly am. The interface for most of the applications has changed radically
and now I am forced to hunt for simple things that I regularly use. My
productivity has dropped substantially. It sure would be nice if Microsoft
would give the option of the previous interfaces. These interfaces are awful
and whoever is responsible for them should be tied to a pole and summarily
shot.

The easiest way to deal with it is to ignore it as much as possible.
Put the commands you actually use on the QAT, and position the QAT
below the ribbon, and minimize the ribbon by double-clicking on any
tab, and then you only need to deal with the ribbon when you need to
do something unusual, which you might have had to look up in the
manu..., er, in the aftermarket book you paid $25-$50 for, anyway.

Enough of my rant.

Anyhoo...so I have developed many templates in Word/Excel previous versions
that I regularly use. Of course, Microsoft had to change the extension for
templates. But that's not really my problem, I think. I can't seem to figure
out how to use them. In Word 2003, all I had to do was specify the file
location for my templates and I was off and running.

Well, like everything else, I searched and searched through Word 2007 for
how to specify my template file. I finally went to Help and it said I needed
to load each template individually by going to Word Options, then to the
Add-Ins tab, then Manage: Templates, then to the Templates tab in the
Templates and Add-Ins dialog and from there specify each template
individually. Is that right? Is it really that difficult? It seems sort of
ridiculous.

The folks here told me that if I put my old template(s) in the Word
Startup folder, then all the customizations would percolate through
Word; and also, when you go Office Button > New > Templates (column on
the left), the third row down gives you "My Templates," which are the
ones you've put in your Startup folder. (And maybe elsewhere, too --
presumably if it told you to put them in that specific place, it can
find them there, too.) (I see both the .dot and the .dotx ones.)

 

[Greg Maxey]

Geoff,

Many have felt your pain. Some will disagree, but if you stick with it I
think you will learn to like it.

For about $20.00 you can purchase a third party AddIn that restores most of
the familiar menus and toolbars. You can review it from the Ad Link here:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Customize_Ribbon.htm

You can also customize the ribbon in ways that weren't posible with the old
menus and toolbars.


You specify your file location using the Office Menu (Top left), Word
Options>Advanced>File Locations.

Then use Office Menu>New>My Templates to create a new document based on one
of your templates.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Actually the free version of http://ribboncustomizer.com/ will provide the
familiar menus, though they are not a true facsimile of the earlier version
and it is probably better to buckle down and learn the new interface. You
can blame the loss of productivity on whoever decided that the change
without proper training was a good idea.

If you you make your old templates folder a trusted location, you can use
the old templates from there, probably without modification (though you may
find an odd macro may need tweaking and autotext may cause you a few
headaches.).

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Geoff]

I be buckling down, but darn it it's hard to teach this old dog new tricks.
Thanks all.