Word 2010 and Template Locations

Anonymous
2011-02-24T03:35:40+00:00

Word 2003 by default saved any document I designated as a template (*.dot) in a predetermined location set up in Location of Files.  I have noted that Word 2010 also saves user templates to a location in Location of Files (oddly it is in a folder called "roaming." something I usually assocate with my cell phone rather than my computer).  However, notwithstanding this setting Word 2010 saves my templates wherever it chooses.  I noticed this after creating a template and then immediately trying to use it--and it wasn't "there."  That is, it did not show up in File/New/Templates.  Gone!  That is, gone until I ran a search for it and found it.  This time I found it in the folder I was working in when I decided to create the new template.  Am  I missing something here?  Is the Location of Files setting subject to other unknown (at least to me) conditions?  There may be fine reasons to choose to store templates in a location different from the setting but since they won't be accessible in the usual way (File/New/Templates etc.) it would probably be a very unique reason.  I lost another template or two previously but I figured it was my own fault for not saving them correcty--until they showed up in the same search! 

Joe McGuire

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Charles Kenyon 171K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-07-13T16:01:51+00:00

I agree with you that having to activate the Developer Tab is a pain as is the routine hiding of both system files and filename extensions.

As to the new form fields, I have mixed feelings. The Add-In from Greg Maxey at Add Classic FormField Controls to Ribbon certainly helps. It essentially gives you the old Forms toolbar in a Ribbon group including the lock toggle.

See also: File New Variations in the Versions of Word

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Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-02-24T05:07:57+00:00

The difference is that Word no longer defaults to the user templates folder when you save a template. This is touted as a benefit, though I don't really see how it is. If you want the template to appear in the New dialog (assuming you've figured out how to even make that appear), you do have to save it in the default template location. There's some info about this at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924460, but it probably won't tell you more than you have already discovered.

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  1. Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-05-02T21:51:40+00:00

    The AppData folder in your profile is a hidden folder, and everything below it is therefore hidden as well. Nothing in any of those folders will turn up in searches unless you change a setting in Windows Explorer (which was renamed File Explorer in Windows 8).

    In Windows Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and select "Show hidden files, folders, and drives".

    I've given up trying to understand what the latest version of Windows Search does or does not find. There are dozens of replacement programs, many of them free, that make searches much easier to control. I use Locate32 (site), but there are plenty of other choices.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-02T20:58:55+00:00

    Is there a reason why I cannot turn up normal.dotm when searching the c:\drive (Using OL in the stand-alone mode)?  When I search for it several hundred files show up, including html files as well as Word files.  But not normal.dotm (or normal.dotx, dot or any variation)(JWM is my User Name).  On the other hand if I navigate to Desktop\JWM\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates--voila, there it is!  But if I don't go all the way to that spot but stop at Desktop\JWM to do the same search I get hundreds of files but, again, no Normal.dotm.  This is not only confusing but it makes me very wary of putting templates in anything BUT some fixed location that I must be sure to remember since apparently I won't be able to search for them. 

    (Maybe not totally a Word question:  And just out of curiosity why does such a search turn up hundreds of files that don't even have the word "normal" in them, let alone in the file name???  Okay, I did not take the time to inspect them all, just a random sampling.  Most of the time searches seem to actually look for what I am looking for and are not shy to tell me they found nothing.  Finding nothing is helpful; finding hundreds of probably unrelated files is a headache--maybe what I am looking for is buried like a needle in a haystack.)

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-05-02T17:14:08+00:00

    I suspect that Microsoft was responding to the way users seem to use templates in the real world. Often they store them in document folders rather than in the Templates folder. If I had to guess, I would say that this is more often because they don't know how to find the Templates folder rather than by choice, and the change in functionality just makes this worse. In Word 2003, if you're creating a template from scratch or saving a document as a template, Word does default to the Templates folder. But if you have received a template from elsewhere, it can be very hard to find where to put it. Under Windows XP, I had the Templates folder in my Places Bar, which worked for all versions of Word. Under Windows 7, Word 2003 still has the Places Bar, but Word 2007 and 2010 use the Windows 7 Explorer model, with Libraries and Favorites (which I still haven't quite got the hang of).

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