Where to put template files in Win2000

[Chris R. Lee]

Hi,

I'd be grateful if someone could summarise the arrangements for template
(.xlt) files in recent multi-user versions of Windows, which I find
confusing. I'm interested in XL2000 under Win2000, but the situation is
similar with XP. Things aren't made easier by the mix of English and French
directory names in the local installations I work with.

With Win9x, you could put a .xlt file anywhere and it created a new .xls
file evertime it was loaded. 'Help' for XL/Win 2000 says you should put them
in individual users' 'Documents and Settings' locations, but this isn't much
use when you don't know in advance which users will need them.

I tried putting my .xlt files in XLStart (sometimes named XLOuvrir in
French), which is somewhere in Program Files/Microsoft Office/etc. This
gives the templates as options under File-New, which is OK except that the
window title bar doesn't give the file extension (which is in fact .xls). Is
this approach OK?

Alternatively, 'Documents and Settings' has an 'All Users' directory, but
it's structure is not the same as that of individual users. Can template
files be placed here, and if so are there any rules about naming the
appropriate sub-directory? More generally, when XL looks for template files
to open, does it search automatically for sub-directories?

Many thanks

CRL

 

[Dave Peterson]

I usually just try saving a workbook as a template. I give it a nice unique
name and use windows explorer to find it. Then I note the folder and delete
that sacrificial template.

In win98 and xl2002, I got:
C:\windows\application data\microsoft\templates

I could also open excel and hit alt-f11 to get to the VBE (where macros are
kept).

Then hit ctrl-G to see the immediate window
type this and hit enter:
?application.TemplatesPath

I got this back:
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates\

Which is darn close to what the other method said!

 

[Chris R. Lee]

Thanks.

Your reply confirms that it's all a bit chaotic.

With more sophisticated ;-) versions of Windows you get sent to your own
user area, which is great except that when you make a template file it's
usually intended for somebody else.

Regards

 

[Dave Peterson]

MSOffice does support the notion of workgroup templates.

You can change this location in MSWord:
Tools|Options|file Locations|workgroup templates

(Excel will use it, too.)

And win98 is a fine OS--except for the crashing and memory problems!