See if you can pick up the discussions by Norm and myself a month or two ago
in this group, we discussed the subject very extensively.
Basically, "Yes", there are three kinds of objects and they can all be
templates.
A "Global" object is available to the whole of Word: you can access stuff
from it in any open document.
An "Attached" object can be accessed only in the document to which it is
attached.
A Template can be either (but not both at the same time).
The "Normal Template" is a special case of "Global" Add-in, it enables you
to create documents from it. It actually forms the model from which all
documents are created in Word, unless you explicitly choose a different
template.
Ordinary Add-Ins are also global, but you cannot normally create documents
from them without explicitly navigating to them.
Each of these three kinds of object: "Normal Template", Global Add-ins, and
Attached Templates, are files of type "Word Template". A Template file type
contains extra structures inside it to contain things such as macros and
customisations.
A file of structure "Document" cannot be used as a template; Word will
prevent that, because it does not have all of the internal structures
needed.
An Attached Template or an Add-in can be a file of type .dot, .dotm, or
..dotx. The .dot is the old format which you should avoid in Word 2008. A
..dotx contains most of the normal structures in a template and in a
document, but cannot contain active content such as macros. A .dotm can
contain everything, including macros.
The Normal template MUST be a .dotm (Macro-Enabled Word Template), the
others may or may not be: they can be .dotx (Word Template).
Hope this helps
Thanks Bob
I can see that now, but as I replied to John it creates other questions
for me.
The "Attach" Button points to the user templates folder where the
normal.dotm resides. And as John said attaching this substituted 'normal' for
the missing template. However, the "Add" button also pointed to the above
folder and if normal was selected it would not allow it saying that it was
already incorporated in to "Global" settings. However, it was NOT attached
through the "Attach" button.
So you have one panel "Templates & Add-ins." that points to different
resources, and this indicated by the very same title (Templates) that
apparently have different functions—all of which has operated this way behind
the scenes quietly for years.
The the error message leads to the presumption that this is critical to
the documents functionality (and I could see that that it my lead to a mal–
formatted document,) but what it really does is, destabilize the portability
of documents.
Am I misunderstanding something here?
Thanks for everyone's reply,
-Alan.
--
The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410 | mailto:
[email protected]
Apparently a template was attached to the document by its