Apply Template to Existing Document (Word 2002 SP3)

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Hi List,

I have created a new template for my department, which people are using when creating new documents.
However, we have existing documents and would like to apply the new template to those old documents – how can I do it?

Many thanks,

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WIth a document open that you want to attach the new template to, click Tools -> Templates and Add-ins… Then click the Attach button. That brings up your list of available templates and you select the one you want. Click Open and then OK.

But be warned – doing that won’t instantly change the formatting of your document for you. It will however mean that styles, macros, autotext etc. from the template will be available to you.

Whether there is a way of automating this so as to deal with a batch of documents all together I don’t know – but I bet there is a lounger out there somewhere who does!

Ian

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WIth a document open that you want to attach the new template to, click Tools -> Templates and Add-ins… Then click the Attach button. That brings up your list of available templates and you select the one you want. Click Open and then OK.

But be warned – doing that won’t instantly change the formatting of your document for you. It will however mean that styles, macros, autotext etc. from the template will be available to you.

Whether there is a way of automating this so as to deal with a batch of documents all together I don’t know – but I bet there is a lounger out there somewhere who does!

Ian

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What kinds of changes? For example, you can overwrite the style definitions in the document with those in the new template by using the Organizer. On the other hand, if there is a new logo in the header, or other in-body content, that would have to be done either manually or by writing a macro.

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What kinds of changes? For example, you can overwrite the style definitions in the document with those in the new template by using the Organizer. On the other hand, if there is a new logo in the header, or other in-body content, that would have to be done either manually or by writing a macro.

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Zara,

That depends on the structure of the documents and how deep into VBA you’re willing to go. I’ve automated a similar problem but across
multiple variants of several templates. Things can get very complicated very quickly if you try automating everything, including stuff that
you should have left alone.

If the existing documents are based around paragraph styles and you can do everything you need using Find & Replace
then you could automate a lot of it by recording macros and connecting these to a toolbar.

If there’s no structure (ie everything is in Normal style with individual paragraphs having the font and size altered) then you
will be in for a fair amount of grief trying to automate the conversion unless your proficient in VBA. But at the least the process of
Attaching the doc to its new template and copying over the new styles can be done without too much drama.

Could you supply anymore info on just what you need to do? And which version/s of Word you are using.

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Zara,

That depends on the structure of the documents and how deep into VBA you’re willing to go. I’ve automated a similar problem but across
multiple variants of several templates. Things can get very complicated very quickly if you try automating everything, including stuff that
you should have left alone.

If the existing documents are based around paragraph styles and you can do everything you need using Find & Replace
then you could automate a lot of it by recording macros and connecting these to a toolbar.

If there’s no structure (ie everything is in Normal style with individual paragraphs having the font and size altered) then you
will be in for a fair amount of grief trying to automate the conversion unless your proficient in VBA. But at the least the process of
Attaching the doc to its new template and copying over the new styles can be done without too much drama.

Could you supply anymore info on just what you need to do? And which version/s of Word you are using.

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My template consists of:

Header: TITLE OF WORK
Footer: Location of document file, Page x of y, Departmental Logo
Body: Text and Bullet styles, e.g. size, font, bullet type.

The template is installed as the normal.dot which works perfectly when colleagues are creating a new document from scratch.
The problem is trying to apply the template to existing documents – I guess what you’re telling me is that I can do Tools – Templates and Add-Ins and attach this template, but it won’t add in the logo, or put the existing title into the header, or make all the existing text Optima size 11, etc?

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Often the easiest way to proceed in these cases is to record a macro in the new template that makes all the changes you need. Test it out on a few old documents, then tell people they can use it when they want to update. To make it easier, you can add a toolbar button or menu item, but those are not entirely reliable (for example, it seems that PDFMaker will block the items from showing up in some cases). So a funny key combination or explaining Alt+F8 to call up the Macros dialog might be more effective.

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Often the easiest way to proceed in these cases is to record a macro in the new template that makes all the changes you need. Test it out on a few old documents, then tell people they can use it when they want to update. To make it easier, you can add a toolbar button or menu item, but those are not entirely reliable (for example, it seems that PDFMaker will block the items from showing up in some cases). So a funny key combination or explaining Alt+F8 to call up the Macros dialog might be more effective.

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Hi Zara:
For future reference, if you want to be able to update older documents with newer changes, you can plan for this when you first create the template. Instead of having an embedded picture for your logo & fixed text, use {Includepicture} & {Includetext} fields.

For example, your current logo can be a file located at C:DataPicturesCompanyLogo.gif. In your template, you would have the field

{Includepicture “C:DataPicturesCompanyLogo.gif”}

where the curly brackets are inserted by pressing Ctrl+F9, not typed. If you update the logo, you simply replace the CompanyLogo.gif file with the new logo. All your documents would then contain the new logo. The same procedure can be used for text that you would want to change. I might add that you do want to think the process through. An old letter containing an out of date logo & names of Officers might still have legal significance.
Cheers,

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Hi Zara:
For future reference, if you want to be able to update older documents with newer changes, you can plan for this when you first create the template. Instead of having an embedded picture for your logo & fixed text, use {Includepicture} & {Includetext} fields.

For example, your current logo can be a file located at C:DataPicturesCompanyLogo.gif. In your template, you would have the field

{Includepicture “C:DataPicturesCompanyLogo.gif”}

where the curly brackets are inserted by pressing Ctrl+F9, not typed. If you update the logo, you simply replace the CompanyLogo.gif file with the new logo. All your documents would then contain the new logo. The same procedure can be used for text that you would want to change. I might add that you do want to think the process through. An old letter containing an out of date logo & names of Officers might still have legal significance.
Cheers,

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My template consists of:

Header: TITLE OF WORK
Footer: Location of document file, Page x of y, Departmental Logo
Body: Text and Bullet styles, e.g. size, font, bullet type.

The template is installed as the normal.dot which works perfectly when colleagues are creating a new document from scratch.
The problem is trying to apply the template to existing documents – I guess what you’re telling me is that I can do Tools – Templates and Add-Ins and attach this template, but it won’t add in the logo, or put the existing title into the header, or make all the existing text Optima size 11, etc?

Reply | Quote