Template Troubles (Word 2003)

[Wordy]

We have multiple people preparing reports - we want the formatting of these reports to be consistent - as a solution we created a MS Word template - for sake of discussion let's call it Report.dot. This dot file is stored on our network. The template has within it styles defined for Headings 1, Headings 2, etc - i.e., common text styles we use in our reports.

Unfortunately, when someone opens the template from their desktop and begins working in it, it appears that suddenly there are numerous other styles available in the template that were not part of the original suite of styles we designed into the template. Do I understand correctly that whatever styles exist in a user's normal.dot template will automatically be available when that person opens any template?

This issue (too many styles, or undesirable styles being available in a document created from a template) becomes confounded it appears when multiple people open and work in a document created using a template.

Seems to me there has to be an easy fix for this or templates wouldn't be of much use to anyone. I suspect user error (me).

[HansV]

Welcome to Woody's Lounge!

There is a large number of styles that is built in to Word and that will be available whatever template you are using, even if you haven't explicitly created or modified them. The Heading 1, Heading 2 etc. styles are well-known examples, but there are others.
You can determine which styles are displayed in the Styles and Formatting task pane - see Microsoft Word Help FAQ. How the Styles and Formatting pane works in Word 2002 and 2003.
Apart from that, styles explicitly defined in Normal.dot are not available in documents based on another template (unless, of course, that template contains those styles too). In other words, if Nornal.dot contains custom style A and your template contains custom style B, only custom style B will be available in documents based on your template.

[Wordy]

Hmm. Why is it then that after someone creates a document from our report template (the template only has about a dozen styles in it), in short order the doc created from the template has many many styles available in it?

I really want to solve this one - it is causing losts of wasted time.

[HansV]

Are you sure they are real styles? If the user has turned on "Keep track of formatting" in the Edit tab of Tools | Options, Word will list all combinations of formatting used in the document as pseudo styles, so that they can be applied easily in other parts of the document. The link I provided in my previous reply explains more about this.

[Wordy]

Let me do some checking...

[Wordy]

Might the troubles we're having be caused because our users are utilizing a network? The typical reotine has a user going to our "Templates" directory on a network, opening the Report.dot file, and because it is a read only file, saving it to a different network location as a *.doc file - in which the user writes his/her report.

Our "Templates" directory is nothing unusual - just another directory on one of the network drives. The other directories on the drive have all manner of files...

[HansV]

I don't think that would cause a miraculous multiplication of styles, but a better scenario would be that the users set their Workgroup Templates location to the Templates folder on the network. This can be done in the File Locations tab of Tools | Options... That way, your template will be available from the New Document task pane (by clicking On my computer...)

[Wordy]

I think the "Keep Track of Formatting" option was the root of all the problems. THANK YOU! We've been struggling with this for 4 years!

[HansV]

Glad to have been able to help.

There's one thing you should be aware of: there is an option in the Styles and Formatting task pane to select all text with the same formatting as the current selection. This option is disabled if you turn off "Keep track of formatting". That's not necessarily a serious problem, but it's good to know the cause if people start asking about it.