I am writing various reports simultaneousley at the moment using Word 2002
and I would like them all to look exactly the same in the way of formatting
and layout. Is it possible that if a document is created from a template this
document and all similar documents can be automatically updated on changing
the original template file?

Thanks for your help.

Yes, you can update the styles of a document to match the attached
template. Open the document that should be updated. On the Tools menu,
click Templates and Add-Ins. Click the "Automatically update document
styles" option to select it, and click OK.

Note that if you revisit the dialog box, you'll find that the option
is still selected, which may not be what you want. In fact, for
documents containing numbered paragraphs, it might be a bad idea to
keep "Automatically update document styles" checked.

--
Stefan Blom


"Comeonthefife" wrote in
message ...
I am writing various reports simultaneousley at the moment using
Word 2002
and I would like them all to look exactly the same in the way of
formatting
and layout. Is it possible that if a document is created from a
template this
document and all similar documents can be automatically updated on
changing
the original template file?

Thanks for your help.

You can update a document's styles from the template. Styles do _not_
include margins or headers and footers. You could have the contents of your
headers and footers be AutoText fields, drawing their content from your
template.

You update the styles through the Tools Templates and Add-Ins dialog by
checking the box to update styles from the template. Note, it is almost
always best to leave this box unchecked, which in your case would mean going
back to the dialog and unchecking the box after you've done an update. One
reason for leaving this box unchecked is that if you send the document to
another computer with the box checked, your styles would update from the
recipient's normal.dot template, probably ruining your formatting.

Probably the simplest way to update a document to match changes in the
template is to create a new document based on the template and paste the
content from your old document into the new one. Then close the old document
and save the new one to the same name and folder.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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from my ignorance and your wisdom.

"Comeonthefife" wrote in message
...
I am writing various reports simultaneousley at the moment using Word 2002
and I would like them all to look exactly the same in the way of
formatting
and layout. Is it possible that if a document is created from a template
this
document and all similar documents can be automatically updated on
changing
the original template file?

Thanks for your help.

Also note that if by "formatting and layout" you mean more than styles (and
I suspect that you do), then the method Stefan suggests will not be helpful;
reattaching the template will have no effect on margins, header/footer, or
any other document-level formatting. To achieve this result, you must create
a new document based on the updated template and insert the old document in
it using Insert | File. Even this won't work entirely if the original
document contains section breaks, as they will bring their formatting along
with them.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Stefan Blom" wrote in message
...
Yes, you can update the styles of a document to match the attached
template. Open the document that should be updated. On the Tools menu,
click Templates and Add-Ins. Click the "Automatically update document
styles" option to select it, and click OK.

Note that if you revisit the dialog box, you'll find that the option
is still selected, which may not be what you want. In fact, for
documents containing numbered paragraphs, it might be a bad idea to
keep "Automatically update document styles" checked.

--
Stefan Blom


"Comeonthefife" wrote in
message ...
I am writing various reports simultaneousley at the moment using
Word 2002
and I would like them all to look exactly the same in the way of
formatting
and layout. Is it possible that if a document is created from a
template this
document and all similar documents can be automatically updated on
changing
the original template file?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your help, I think I'll just have to get my page layout right
first time, though the formatting tip may come in handy.

Good point. I completely overlooked the reference to "layout" in the
original message.

--
Stefan Blom


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
Also note that if by "formatting and layout" you mean more than
styles (and
I suspect that you do), then the method Stefan suggests will not be
helpful;
reattaching the template will have no effect on margins,
header/footer, or
any other document-level formatting. To achieve this result, you
must create
a new document based on the updated template and insert the old
document in
it using Insert | File. Even this won't work entirely if the
original
document contains section breaks, as they will bring their
formatting along
with them.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Stefan Blom" wrote in message
...
Yes, you can update the styles of a document to match the attached
template. Open the document that should be updated. On the Tools
menu,
click Templates and Add-Ins. Click the "Automatically update
document
styles" option to select it, and click OK.

Note that if you revisit the dialog box, you'll find that the
option
is still selected, which may not be what you want. In fact, for
documents containing numbered paragraphs, it might be a bad idea
to
keep "Automatically update document styles" checked.

--
Stefan Blom


"Comeonthefife" wrote in
message ...
I am writing various reports simultaneousley at the moment using
Word 2002
and I would like them all to look exactly the same in the way of
formatting
and layout. Is it possible that if a document is created from a
template this
document and all similar documents can be automatically updated
on
changing
the original template file?

Thanks for your help.