upgrading to Word 2007--can templates be managed in the same way?

[renee]

My company is upgrading to Word 2007. Today, an external consultant came in
and gave us an overview of the new version of Word. We came away overwhelmed
and confused about a lot of things, mostly about templates and the role they
play in Word 2007. He said that we can't build templates or think of them the
way we used to (with Styles in .dot files) and that we have to use Building
Blocks instead.

Someone at a point asked him about Page Setup and he said something about
how that feature went away. I asked him how would we control the
standardized, corporate-level documents so that they have consistent margins,
etc. He then said that you'd use a template to do that. I told him that I
thought templates went away in Word 2007 and his answer eludes me right now,
but I didn't understand it and neither did any of my colleagues.

So can someone please give me the scoop on this? I understand the utility of
something like Building Blocks, but we don't have enough time or resources
(or experience) to convert our templates before Vista & Office 2007 are
launched.

We're wondering if Building Blocks are a nice thing, but not necessarily a
required thing to use. Is that the case by chance? Can we bring our old
templates into Word 2007 and use them the way we did in previous versions of
Word? Can we create new templates in the same way? Are Styles the same in
Word 2007? (We came away with the impression that Styles no longer exist in
the way we're accustomed.)

This has all of us in a bit of a panic. So if you have answers or can
provide links to pages that explain this in detail, please help us out.

Many thanks.

 

[Paul Ballou]

Page Setup did not go away you just access the features differently. To get
the page setup dialog box you click on the Page Layout Tab on the ribbon
then in the Page Setup Section of the tab to the right of the " Page Setup
title you will see a small embossed square click that and it will open the
page setup dialog box...

Templates are still used and you can open templates from previous versions..

I personally have never really used styles but it appears that they still
function the same....

I wouldn't be overly concerned, the Interface Change will be the biggest
change that you will need to take time adjusting too but once you get used
to the UI then everything fall into place....

They are alternative addins you can use that will add toolbars back to the
interface if you need them until you can get use the New UI....

http://www.toolbartoggle.com/
http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice/default.htm
--
Paul Ballou
MVP Office
http://office.microsoft.com/home
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/
http://www.ballousgiftshop.com

 

[renee]

Thank you--so, so much--for your help and kind explanations.

We actually wondered about that (wrt Page Setup) but we also acknowledge
that there's a chance that were just burned out from the high-speed
training--maybe we all misheard him? About templates, thank you for the
information! So we'll be able to use AND update them, yes? In other words, if
we migrate our existing templates over to use with Office 2007 and have
changes to make, will we be able to do that?

Ideally, I would like to begin to use Building Blocks more gradually. At
first, for example, I'd like to use them to store our corporate images and
then very gradually move into incorporating them more and more into the
"templates" that we use. The UI really IS quite different, but we were able
to get past that--it was trying to wrap our heads around the whole building
blocks thing and how that affected existing docs and templates.

Again, thank you so much for helping us out. We'll all sleep a bit better
with this info, I'm sure.

 

[Beth Melton]

After reading this I can't decided if the consultant knew what he was
talking about, if he muddled some concepts together, or if his delivery was
confusing, but in the end, it sure sounds like he confused you!

As Paul noted, your templates will be fine in Word 2007. They still work as
they always did and you can create new templates in Word 2007, just as you
did before, by saving a document as a template or by creating a new
template. I think I might know what the consultant was trying to convey
regarding styles and building blocks. For some types of documents we may not
need a "full blown template". Sometimes all we need is specific content and
other times we might need formatting only. For these situations, new
functionality has been added to satisfy the "smaller template" need.

Building blocks help provide a means to easily use standard content that
might apply to many documents, such as signature blocks, letterhead, fax
cover page, company logos, headers/footers, etc. So instead of creating a
document template to supply standard content, or designing several similar
templates with repetitive information and only a few changes, you can create
building blocks instead. This makes the standard content more flexible,
easier to modify if necessary (since it's only stored in one place) and can
be used with a broader set of documents. Building Blocks aren't actually
new, in previous versions this was called AutoText and was a little more
limited than Building Blocks.

Along with standard content there is also standard formatting that may need
to be used for many documents. Instead of creating a document template to
supply the styles, standardized formatting can be delivered to any document
using a new type of formatting templates called Quick Style Sets or Style
Sets. This type of template contains only styles - no margin definitions, no
boilerplate text, etc. Quick Style Sets are found on the Home tab under
Change Styles. There are several built-in style sets you can use and you can
create your own by modifying the Quick Style set in a document and then
saving the customizations as a new Quick Style Set.

The added functionality wasn't intended to be a replacement to what you
might have used in the past, but rather an enhancement. The can be used
alone or in conjunction with a document template. For example you can
include specific Building Blocks and a customized Style Set in a document
template.

If you want an example of how all three elements can work together, click
the Microsoft Office Button and then click New. In the New dialog box,
select the Installed Templates and then create a new document based one of
the Reports, such as Equity Report or Median Report. Then on the Insert tab,
click Cover Page and note there are cover pages (building blocks) that are
specific to that template under the Report category. For example, the report
may need one of several different cover pages or it may need a Fax Cover
page. Also on the Insert tab, display the Header and Footer gallery and
you'll find headers and footers that are also specific to that template in
the Report category. So instead of creating several similar document
templates, you can create one that includes those varying components for
quick insertion.

Then, if a specific report needs a certain set of formatting then the
formatting can be changed with a few clicks of the mouse, as opposed to
reformatting the document or using another template that provides specific
styles. To see how Style Sets can are integrated, in the document scroll to
page 2 so you can see the text. Then on the Home tab, click Change Styles,
and under Style Sets, hover over the various Style Sets and note how the
formatting changes using Live Preview. In past versions, in order to swap
style formatting you could use the Organizer and copy styles between
documents and templates but now this has been greatly simplified.

I'm not sure if this helps clarify some things for you, but hopefully you'll
be a little less confused.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[renee]

Thank you, Beth! I am thrilled to hear from you and Paul, and I'm relieved
that we'll be able to continue using templates as usual. I do think I
understand the utility of building blocks--it's a way to reference common
assets from one source. And that's wonderful, fantastic, actually!

After talking with my co-workers a bit more today, I do have to admit that I
misunderstood what the consultant said about Page Setup. He didn't say that
it went away but that it was accessed differently. I missed that somehow. We
all did apparently come away from the overview with the same impression about
templates, although one person wasn't entirely sure if she misunderstood the
instructor or if he misunderstood us. The general feeling was that maybe he's
not accustomed to creating long, complex technical pieces and instead, that
he creates shorter marketing pieces and that those jobs would be ideally
suited for the building-blocks concept. Maybe that, to him, is the only way
to go and he encourages that and maybe doesn't know as much about templates.
I think he said that he doesn't really use Styles. (Frankly, I don't know how
one manages a document without using Styles but I'm weird.

Anyway, we all did agree that we need hands-on, customized
training--training that's suited specifically for our needs so we'll be
pursuing that in the coming weeks.

Again, thank you both very much for the help and the information, and for
taking the time to reassure us in our hour of need.

 

[Beth Melton]

You're welcome.

Good luck with your training ventures. Unfortunately from what I've seen
(and heard), a lot of trainers are just learning about Office 2007
themselves and, like you found with the consultant, many aren't conveying
the new functionality correctly and how everything works. I don't know if
you've switched to Office 2007 yet but there's an additional add-in that can
be installed called the Get Started tab that contains links to several
resources available on Office Online. There's one for Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102146851033.aspx

You'll find training tutorials, articles, demos, and there's a link for an
interactive guide which provides the ability to find where commands are now
located using the old UI. That way, if someone tells you something is gone
you can find out for yourself. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Edge]

it seems a lot to take on board to begin with and that's cos we're all so
used to word 2003 but it is a lot faster and although I don't have the need
to "dress up" my documents, if you're in a corporate environment you can do
some great design work; however, to really avail of all its features I feel
you would need to be giving presentations as not every document needs a theme
and title pages etc; my issue is the tables and macros! and sadly I find the
tables part slower - i had just reached the point in word where i was flyig
through - any advice on macros! good luck - the mini toolbar is very handy -
kind of hovers over your text so that you can bold, change font style,
colour, underline right over the text without having to go to the toolbar
because there are no toolbars! - it's all about the Ribbon - I never found
that time consuming but another weird thing is that there is no office
assistant and that is a real problem for me! ciao