Templates in Word X

[Arno Wouters]

I'm an experienced user of Word 5.1 (and Word 4 and Word 2 before that)
but new to Word X and OS X. I have a question about templates.

I used to have several stationary files (word 5.1 templates) each in
their own folder. For example, I had a folder "letters" with a letters
"template", a folder "notes" with a notes "template" and so on. I
aliased all the templates to a stationary folder in my apple menu. When
I wanted to write a new letter, I choosed the letter template from the
stationary folder in the apple menu and saved the new document in the
letters folder (which appeared by default).

Word X seems to distuiguish templates and stationary and suggest
another way of working. It suggests that I have all my templates in a
"my templates" folder and use the project gallery to start a new
document. I have experimented with this, but I fail to see the benefits
for now. It has a drawback: every time I save a document for the first
time, Word suggests to save it in the my templates folder and I have to
navigate to the folder where I want to have the document.

Here is my question: is the way of working suggested by Word simply the
windows way of working transported to the mac (and to be ignored) or are
their real benefits in using the "new" kind of templates?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Arno,

Here's a bit of text that I copied from the Office 4 manual so that anyone
who reads this will know what stationery is:
"
Macintosh Stationery and Word Templates
When you create a document from a Macintosh stationery pad, the new
document contains the text, styles, and other formats of the stationery.
Unlike a Word template, however, the stationery doesn't store customized
macros, command settings, or AutoText entries (called glossary entries in
earlier versions of Word). Also, changes to the stationery styles affect
only new documents created from the stationery. If you modify the stationery
styles, you cannot automatically update a document's styles as you can if
you base the document on a template.
If you've used stationery in earlier versions of Word, consider
converting the stationery to a Word template. From the File menu, choose
Save As, and then select Document Template in the Save File As Type box.
You'll have all of the benefits of a stationery pad, plus the added features
of a Word template.
If you save a Word document as stationery, the template attached to the
document will be attached to the stationery and to any new documents you
create from the stationery.
"

Word X still allows you to Save As stationery.

As for the default location of your templates, experiment with Word's
preferences. On the File Location tab you can select a different location
for the default template folder.

Hope this explains a bit about the difference between stationery and
templates and how to tame Word a bit.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

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----------

 

[Arno Wouters]

Here's a bit of text that I copied from the Office 4 manual so that anyone
who reads this will know what stationery is:

As for the default location of your templates, experiment with Word's
preferences. On the File Location tab you can select a different location
for the default template folder.

I did and I also changed the default document folder. However, this does
not enable me to set a different default location for each template
(which is what I would like to have)

Hope this explains a bit about the difference between stationery and
templates and how to tame Word a bit.

Crystal clear! Thanks.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

OK - now I understand. Clearly Word does not have the feature you desire.
That being the case, you might wish to send a note to Microsoft and explain
to them how you would like Word to behave in regard to templates. The URL
is
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Search for help with the free Google search Excel add-in:
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

----------

 

[Arno Wouters]

OK - now I understand. Clearly Word does not have the feature you desire.
That being the case, you might wish to send a note to Microsoft and explain
to them how you would like Word to behave in regard to templates. The URL
is
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/feedback/suggestion.asp

I feel that such a request would not be sensible as this would interfere
the transportability of the templates.

However, I found a solution to the problem, namely to save a stationary
document based on the template in the folder in which, by default, I
would like to save the documents based on this template. This also
relinguishes the need to use the slow project gallery!

 

[Arno Wouters]

I feel that such a request would not be honoured as this would interfere
with he transportability of the templates.

However, I found a solution to the problem, namely to save a stationary
document based on the template in the folder in which, by default, I
would like to save the documents based on this template. This also
relinguishes the need to use the slow project gallery!

Sorry to say so but you didn't test this well enough ;-)

If you save a stationary document the save dialogue starts with the
folder you last used to save something in, not with the folder with the
stationary file. :-(