Editing a Template

A template is Word's guide for how your document and working environment should appear. Depending on your version of Word, templates can contain information on the toolbar, menus, macros, styles, default text, and any number of other environmental items.

Editing a template is much like editing a regular document; the only difference is that the file is saved with a different filename extension than regular documents. To load an existing template so that you can edit it, do the following if you are using Word 2007:

1. Click the Office button and then click Open. Word displays the Open dialog box.
2. At the bottom of the dialog box, just above the Open button, is a drop-down list where you can specify the type of files you want Word to list. Use the drop-down list to select either Word Templates or Word Macro-Enabled Templates, depending on which type you want to open.
3. Using the controls in the dialog box, browse through directories and disks drives as desired until the desired template files are listed.
4. Select the desired document template.
5. Click the Open button.

If you are using an older version of Word, follow these steps instead:

1. Choose Open from the File menu, or click on the Open tool on the toolbar. You will see the Open dialog box.
2. In the Files of Type pull-down list, select Document Template (*.dot). The filename display will be changed to show only template files.
3. Using the controls in the dialog box, browse through directories and disks drives as desired until the desired template files are listed.
4. Select the template file you want to edit.
5. Click on OK.

You can now make any changes desired, and then save the template again. The changes affect any future documents you base on the template.