User FAQs

If you have a question, please send it to us.

1) How can I see my User Templates when I press (File > New) ?
If you save your word templates in the following folder they are not accessible in Word 365 when you press (File > New).

C:\Users\"username"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\ 

They will only be accessible if you copy this folder location into your (File > Options)(Save, "Default personal templates location").

2) How can I prevent changes being made to my Normal.dotm file ?
There is an option that can be switched on to prevent changes from being saved.
Word Options > Advanced (Save, Prompt before saving Normal template

3) Is the View Percentage saved into a template (.dotm) ?
Yes. If you change the view to 50% and save the template, new documents will be created and displayed at 50%.

4) What happens if the template a document is attached to cannot be found ?
Does it default back to the Normal.dotm template

5) Attaching a template that was Normal to a custom template ?
Do you need to tick "automatically update document styles"

6) What is transferred to the document from the template ?
And what stays in the template.
All styles in a template are transferred to any documents created from that template and will stay with the document even if the attached template is broken.

7) What happens if a style in a template is changed at a later date ?
If the template is still attached that new style will not be transferred to the document, it will still use the old style.
For the new style to be transferred to the document, the template will need to reattached (ticking 'update styles') or the individual style will need to be copied across to the document (using the organizer).

8) Is the XML ribbon customisation in a template transferred to the actual document ?
No - this needs to be tested

9) Which template is attached to a document if there are different templates with the same name in different locations ?
The template that is attached will only be used if there is not a template with the same name in any of the following folders:
(1) Same Folder - If there is a template with the same name in the folder containing the document, Word will attach to that template the next time the document is opened.
(2) The User Templates folder - Word will not attach a template of the same name if there is also one in the same folder as the document.
(3) The Workgroup Templates folder - Word will not attach a template of the same name if there is also one in the User Templates folder or the folder containing the document.
Templates that are in subfolders of the User Templates folder or the Workgroup Templates folder will not be automatically attached. Neither do templates in a subfolder of the folder containing the document.

10) What are the default folder paths for these different templates ?

User Templates - C:\Users\"user name"\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates. 
Workgroup Templates - (not defined by default) 
Global Templates - 

It is my recommendation that users make both of these locations (User Templates and Default Custom Templates) the same folder

11) Where do I need to save my templates for them to appear on the (File > New) tab ?
If you want them to show up in the File => New dialog box they must be in either the User Templates Folder or the Workgroup Templates Folder.
If you want them to show up on the File > New > Custom dialog, they must be stored in either the Workgroup Templates folder or in the folder designated for storage of new templates

12) What is the Custom Office Templates folder ?
Office 2013-2024/365 comes with one other standard template location.
By default, this a separate folder is in the users Document Folder.
That is set in the Save Options and is the place where newly created templates will be saved by default. (In earlier versions, new templates were saved in the User Templates folder by default; this stopped with Word 2007.)

13) Can templates be uploaded and shared on SharePoint ?

14) What is the Templates Hierarchy ?
If the same item appears in multiple templates which template is going to be used.
(1) Document - Styles, Macros, Ribbon
(2) Attached Template - Styles, Macros, Ribbon, AutoText
(3) Normal Template - Styles, Macros, Ribbon, AutoText
(4) Global Templates - Macros, Ribbon, AutoText

15) If Normal.dotm appears in more than one place - which one takes precedence ?