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Bill Kerschbaum reports: <<Our dept. is trying to create a new Word
template for our documents, but the template looks different on each
PC. We've especially run into problems when upgrading from Office 2000
to 2003, but some PCs with 2003 can view the templates just fine (it
doesn't seem to make a difference whether we're on Win2000 or XP,
either). The style names are listed correctly in the styles list, but
some of them don't look anything like they're supposed to, and their
style settings aren't right either.>>
Not using 2003, but based on previous versions, there are a few
possibilities. First, if you've used the name of a pre-existing
template, it's possible that the people experiencing difficulties are
seeing the old template instead of the new one; that's particularly
true in more recent versions of Windows, since I believe you can have
different template folders for different user accounts.
To find the correct location where the templates should be stored
(which varies among operating systems and Word versions), create a new
template called "temp.dot", save it, then find out where it was saved
(either by paying attention to the "save as" dialog or by using the
Windows search tool to find it). Make sure your new template is stored
in that location too. If there are multiple user accounts, you may need
to store a separate copy in a comparable location for each account.
Second, if you've redefined Word's built-in styles instead of creating
your own style names, it's possible that Word is reading the built-in
styles instead of your redefined versions. The usual cause of this is
that the users haven't "attached" the new template to each document
governed by that template--which means Word is taking the definitions
for those styles from Normal.dot instead of your template. Open the
Tools menu, select Templates and Add-ins, and make sure the correct
template is attached.
Third, you may be getting screwed up by a combination of autoformatting
and the "automatically update style" setting. Open the Tools menu,
select Autocorrect, then select the "Autoformat as you Type" tab. Turn
off everything on that tab (generally it's all useless for an
experienced writer), and most particularly disable "define styles based
on your formatting". Next, open the new template file, open the Format
menu, then select Style. In turn, one at a time, edit each of the
styles in your new template to check its settings: select the style
name, and click the Modify button. Make sure "Add to template" and
"Automatically update" are both deselected.
I'm sure there are other possibilities, but those are the most common
ones.
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