Managing Normal style and a template

[Annamarie]

Hi all,

I'm in the possition of being one of the few people in my smallish company
who has worked extensively with styles, and am in the position of making
recommendations about what we should be doing. There are some things I'm not
quite sure of, so I thought I'd ask this knowledgeeable list. We are using a
highly sophisticated template with macros that automate a number of
functions. IT's all XML and designed to integrate with other databases...
however our programmer admitted he doesn't understand styles. We also have
people who use our Word documents but don't have the template installed.

1) We have a company standard of using Arial 11 pt for our Normal style.
Does that mean when we send a document to others that our Arial 11 pt is
what they see when they open our doc in their Word? I think so, but I'm not
sure I understand why.

2) When we create a document using our template and then send it to our
clients or others, who don't have our template installed, I understand our
template will "travel with" our document. What happens if/when they make
changes in the doc?

Thanks for helping on this
Annamarie

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Hi Annamarie,

1) We have a company standard of using Arial 11 pt for our Normal style.
Does that mean when we send a document to others that our Arial 11 pt is
what they see when they open our doc in their Word? I think so, but I'm not
sure I understand why.

Yes and no. You need to make sure that under Tools => Templates and
Add-Ins... the box to update styles from the template is _not_ checked.

2) When we create a document using our template and then send it to our
clients or others, who don't have our template installed, I understand our
template will "travel with" our document. What happens if/when they make
changes in the doc?

Your template will _not_ travel with your documents unless you send it with
your documents. You can't do this by mistake, it is a separate file. When
they make changes in the doc, the doc is changed.

For more on the different kinds of templates and locations of templates
folders see <URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/templates.htm>. For more
on styles, see <URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm>.
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In further answer to #2, they will have access to any styles that have been
used in the document. Styles in the template but not used in the document
will not be available. Any custom menus/toolbars (or menu/toolbar
customizations), macros, or AutoText stored in the template will be
unavailable.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Suzanne

In further answer to #2, they will have access to any styles that have been
used in the document. Styles in the template but not used in the document
will not be available.

This seems to be contradictory to my understanding (which wouldn't have
to mean much ) and some tentative tests: I just created a new blank
template (Word 2000), created a custom style, and saved the whole thing
to my desktop (blank template). In a new document created from this
template, the style shows up no matter whether the underlying template
still exists or not.

2cents
..bob
...Word-MVP

 

[Charles Kenyon]

I just tried the same thing and can verify:
1) A style was created in a template but never used in the template. This
was a custom paragraph style based on no style.
2) I created a document based on the template but did not use the style in
the document. Closed the document.
3) I deleted the template.
4) I created a new template with the same name as the old one but without
the custom style.
5) I closed and reopened Word.
6) I reopened the document and applied the custom style to text.

So, from this I conclude that custom styles in a template are always
considered to be styles in use. It may be that a customized built-in style
would give different results.

Word 2003
--

Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory:
<URL: http://addbalance.com/word/index.htm>

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide)
<URL: http://addbalance.com/usersguide/index.htm>

See also the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I stand corrected.