Batch Template Changes

Templates are used to quickly define a standard look for a document or a group of documents. The wonderful thing about templates is that you can define one template to give your document one look, and another template to give it an entirely different look. All you need to do, of course, is change which template is associated with a document.

Changing the template associated with one or two documents is quite easy. What if you have a directory full of documents whose templates need to be changed? This can get quite tedious very quickly. This is where a macro can come to the rescue—to relieve that old tedium and do the mundane very quickly. The following macro, ChangeTemplates, modifies all the documents in a particular directory to make sure they use the template you want.

Sub ChangeTemplates()
    Dim strDocPath As String
    Dim strTemplateB As String
    Dim strCurDoc As String
    Dim docCurDoc As Document

    ' set document folder path and template strings
    strDocPath = "C:\path to document folder\"
    strTemplateB = "C:\path to template\templateB.dot"

    ' get first doc - only time need to provide file spec
    strCurDoc = Dir(strDocPath & "*.doc")

    ' ready to loop (for as long as file found)
    Do While strCurDoc <> ""
        ' open file
        Set docCurDoc = Documents.Open(FileName:=strDocPath & strCurDoc)
        ' change the template
        docCurDoc.AttachedTemplate = strTemplateB
        ' save and close
        docCurDoc.Close wdSaveChanges
        ' get next file name
        strCurDoc = Dir
    Loop
    MsgBox "Finished"
End Sub

In order to use the macro, simply make sure that the strDocPath and strTemplateB variables are set properly. The macro changes the template associations for all documents in a particular directory. If you want something a little more discriminating, then a different macro is in order. For instance, you may want to have the macro examine each document and only change those that use TemplateA so that they now use TemplateB. In this instance you will find the following macro very handy:

Sub TemplateBatchChange()
    Dim objPropertyReader
    Dim strFolder As String
    Dim strFileName As String
    Dim objThisDoc As Word.Document
    Dim strFindTemplate As String
    Dim strReplaceTemplate As String
    Dim strAffectedDocs As String

    On Error Resume Next

    'Create the PropertyReader object
    Set objPropertyReader = CreateObject("DSOleFile.PropertyReader")
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then
        MsgBox "You must install the DSOleFile component. See " & _
            "http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224351"
        GoTo FinishUp
    End If

    'Get the template names
    strFindTemplate = UCase(InputBox("Name of template to find (exclude the .dot)") & _
      ".dot")

    strReplaceTemplate = InputBox("Name of replacement template (exclude the .dot)") & _
      ".dot"

    'Make sure it's a valid template. Try to create a new document based on it.
    Set objThisDoc = Word.Documents.Add(strReplaceTemplate, Visible:=False)
    If Err.Number <> 0 Then
        'No such template
        MsgBox "There is no accessible template named " & strReplaceTemplate
        GoTo FinishUp
    End If
    'Close the test document
    objThisDoc.Close wdDoNotSaveChanges

    On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
    'Get the current documents path
    strFolder = Word.Application.Options.DefaultFilePath(wdDocumentsPath) _
      & Word.Application.PathSeparator

    'Examine all Word documents in the directory

    'Get the first document name
    strFileName = Dir(strFolder & "*.doc")

    While strFileName <> ""
        'Look at the template name
        If UCase(objPropertyReader.GetDocumentProperties _
          (strFolder & strFileName).Template) = strFindTemplate Then

            'It matches. Open the document
            Set objThisDoc = Word.Documents.Open _
              (FileName:=strFileName, Visible:=False)

            'Change the attached template
            objThisDoc.AttachedTemplate = strReplaceTemplate

            'Save the change
            objThisDoc.Close wdSaveChanges

            'Note the document
            strAffectedDocs = strAffectedDocs & strFileName & ", "
        End If
        'Get the next document
        strFileName = Dir
    Wend

    'Report the results
    If strAffectedDocs = "" Then
        MsgBox "No documents were changed.", , "Template Batch Change"
    Else
        'Remove the trailing comma and space
        strAffectedDocs = Left(strAffectedDocs, Len(strAffectedDocs) - 2)

        MsgBox "These documents were changed: " & _
          strAffectedDocs, , "Template Batch Change"
    End If
    GoTo FinishUp

ErrorHandler:
    Set objThisDoc = Nothing
    Set objPropertyReader = Nothing
    Err.Raise vbError + 1001, "TemplateBatchChange", _
      "TemplateBatchChange encountered an error: " & Err.Description

FinishUp:
    'Release object references
    Set objThisDoc = Nothing
    Set objPropertyReader = Nothing
End Sub

In order to use this macro, you must first make sure that the DSOLEFILE component (available free from Microsoft) is installed on your system. You can find out more about this component by referring to Microsoft's 224351 Knowledge Base article. The macro provides you a chance to specify a template name to be replaced and the name of the template to replace it with. It even checks to make sure that the replacement template exists.

This macro searches for documents in the default Word document folder. If you want to search in a different directly, you should make sure that the strFolder variable gets set to the full path of the folder you want used.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1437) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.