Cayce,
When you open the 'Templates and Add-ins' dialog box in Word 2003, you will
see two tabs: 'Templates' (which is usually selected by default) and 'Linked
CSS'. There is a field on the 'Templates' tab under the section labelled
'Document template' that has an 'Attach...' button to the right of it. The
information displayed in this field indicates the template that the document
is based on (and attached to).
Now consider the following use case: I create a document from a template
that is stored on my computer here in New Zealand. I then email this document
to you. Clearly you would not have access to the template on my computer.
However, when you open the document and look at the "attached template", it
would still indicate that the document is attached to the template on my
local computer. But since you do not have access to this template, any
functionality contained within this template - macros, AutoText entries,
toolbars and keyboard shortcuts - would not be available to you. In reality,
because every document must be attached to _some_ template, Word has
"disconnected" the document from the template and has reattached it to your
Normal template, although the information displayed in Word does not show
this as being the case.
Now consider this use case: You create a document from a template on your
network. You send this document to a colleague who also has access to this
template on the network. When your colleague opens the document, it shows the
attached template as being the one on the network, and because your colleague
has access to this template through the network, any functionality in this
template is also available to your colleague.
Finally, consider this use case: You create a document from a template in
the location specified for the Word 'User templates' on your local machine.
You send this document to a colleague who also has a copy of the same
template in their Word 'User templates' location on their local machine.
Assuming both templates are identical, you might reasonably expect that any
functionality in the template would be available to your colleague as well.
However, you will find that this is not the case - especially if you use
profiles in Windows. This is because the path to the template on your
colleague's machine is not the same as the path to the template on your
machine, and the information displayed in the 'Templates and Add-Ins' dialog
box will show this. (It will probably include profile information.) Your
colleague would need to reattached the document to the template on their
local machine in order to use any functionality contained within the
template. (And again, Word would have automatically attached the document to
the Normal template without any indication.)
There are, of course, sublties to this subject that I may not have addressed
fully - e.g. Citrix environments, VPNs, network drive mapping, etc. - but
this should give you a general idea of how the relationship between a
document and its source template works.
--
Cheers!
Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP
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