Templates And Documents

This section provides the Word user with a degree of sophistication in understanding why things go wrong, and suggests some solutions for trouble-free word-processing.

We pay particular attention to the impact of our template strategy on our work.

A long time ago, templates were radically different from documents; templates could hold macros, documents could not, but the differences are blurred.

It still makes sense to use a Word document with an extent of DOT to indicate a common source of text and styles.

In this session we will explore the use of templates (*.DOT) to produce boiler-plate text.

A Template Is …

… a document that can hold Macros, AutoText and Toolbars.

Open any Template, choose Tools, Macro, Organizer. Chances are you’ll see entries in the MATS cards.

Open any document, choose Tools, Macro, Organizer. Chances are you’ll see entries in the Styles card; you will never see entries in the MAT cards.

Well, actually, with some of the viruses that are going around, if you open a DOC file and you do see macros, there’s a very good chance that (I) those macros are encrypted (try editing one of them) or (ii) they have names like FileOpen or AutoOpen. In either case, you may well have stumbled on a virus template renamed with a DOC extent.

Why can’t I see “Organizer” when I choose Edit, AutoText?

Design flaw in Word?

Documents And Templates Hold Styles.

Styles, however, can live not only in templates, but also in documents. Choose Format, Styles, New. Note that there is no drop-down list for templates. The best you get is a check-box that says Add To Template. Oh ho! You can add a style to a document or to the document template, but that’s it. Interesting!

Design flaw in Word?

Documents And Templates Hold Text.

No question about this one.

If in doubt, store text in a template.

Documents And Templates Hold Page Layout.

No question about this one.

If in doubt, store text in a template.

Normal.Dot Always Exists.

If you delete Normal.dot Word just creates a new one. Where does Word create a new Normal.dot? In the User area, if that area is available.

If you rename your old Normal.dot, Word creates a new one. Try renaming your Normal.dot to, say, N971121.DOT and then re-load Word. You still have a Normal.dot, but you don’t have all the stuff you’ve been creating over the past few weeks. It’s all in N971121.DOT.

You Can’t Keep A Good Normal.Dot Down.

Most user-created items end up in the user’s Normal.dot. If two users both create a Heading 1 style each in their own Normal.dot, and then exchange documents, the behavior of the document will appear erratic as first one Normal.dot takes effect, and then the other.

Normal.dot is a great place to experiment, but it is a desktop blotter. Start a fresh one each day. Develop new items (macros, styles, AutoText and toolbars) in Normal.dot by all means, but once they are working, use Organizer to copy them to a named template.

The commands that load my system at the start of the day are set to rename Normal.dot as a matter of course.

I choose to rename it in the form Nyymmdd.dot, where the yymmdd is the day’s date, N971121.dot, for example. Now Winword doesn’t find a Normal.dot, so it recreates a brand-new Normal.dot.

I can always use Organizer to copy styles, macros, AutoText and toolbars across.

Each Document Has An Attached Template.

The only way to create a new document is to base it on a template or a document. Word will use Normal.dot unless you specify a specific template. If you rename or delete Normal.dot, Word will create a fresh copy.

Templates Can Be Found In Many Areas.

Choose Tools, Options, File Locations. Inspect the entries for User templates, Workgroup templates and Startup. Each of those locations can be accessed by Word when it searches for templates.

Templates Can Be Found In The Workgroup Area.

Choose File, Templates; select each template listed under Global templates until you see the Full Path point to the Startup area.

Templates Can Be Found In The User Area.

Choose File, Templates; select each template listed under Global templates until you see the Full Path point to the Startup area.

Styles

Styles Live In Templates And Documents.

Create a new style Style1 but do not choose the Add To template check box. Apply the Style1 to a paragraph.

Choose Format, Styles, Organizer.

Since the Style1 was not added to the template, it does not appear in the template.

Since the style was defined in the document, it does appear in the document.

Styles In A Document Impact The Document.

Change the Style1, still do not add it to the template. The change in style is reflected in the document.

Styles In The Attached Template Affect The Document.

Change the Style1 again, this time check the Add To template box. The change in style is reflected in the document.

Change the Style1 again, do not add it to the template. The change in Style1 is reflected in the document.

Choose Tools, Macro, Organizer. Inspect the definition of Style1 in the document, inspect the definition of Style1 in the template. Which definition holds sway on the screen?

The document. This becomes important when we examine Heading styles.

Who Is Each DOT?

The name of the template has impact on how identically named items in different templates are used. For example, if we have two Global User templates, Dot1.dot and Dot2.dot, and both contain an AutoText entry CGI, the entry in Dot1.dot will be used in preference to that in Dot2.dot, because Dot1.dot sorts first.

Where Is Stored Each DOT?

The Startup and Workgroup templates are loaded before the User templates.

If we have a Startup template Dot2.dot and a User template Dot1.dot, and both contain an AutoText entry CGI, the entry in Dot2.dot will be used in preference to that in Dot1.dot, because Dot2.dot is a Startup area template.

Moving Dot2 to User and Dot1 to Startup, without changing the content of either template, will affect the use of the AutoText entry CGI.

Exercises

Use Windows Explorer to locate and rename each instance of Normal.dot on your computer

Create two templates, one called DailyMemo.DOT; one called WeeklyReport.DOT. Save both templates in your User Templates area.

Create a daily memo based on your DailyMemo.dot

Create a weekly report based on your WeeklyReport.dot.

Next: Templates From Scratch

Search