template creation 1

[scoobydoo26]

I've created a template for company letterhead so the users can open, type and email on letterhead. My question is, what is the best way to place this on the users' desktops in their microsoft office\templates\1033 subdirectory without manually doing it on each one.

 

[ilses]

Hello ScoobyDoo!

There is not "one" best way for template deployment. A lot depends on your situation: complexity, quantity and types of templates, users, update requirements and frequencies, and don't forget time available to you to maintain and support a solution.

If you do not have an extensive "suite" of templates but just a handful, simple templates, the first thing to consider is not to place templates on user's machines - unless it's mobile users that hardly ever log into your network. Place them on a network share and have the Workgroup Templates location set to that share.

Please note that this is just my personal opinion for a small-scale type of situation without too much complexity. Maybe it's completely up the wrong track for your situation. If so, do post back. It's a subject many are interested in and there will be quite a few people that have excellent ideas to offer.

IS

 

[Dreamboat]

Consider emailing a) a registry edit to all the users that will change their workgroup templates location to a shared drive, and b) create a shortcut on your pc and email the shortcut to them and have them save the shortcut on their desktop
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[scoobydoo26]

thanks! new IT person here getting to speed

 

[scoobydoo26]

dreamboat..could you inform me on how to make the registry change

 

[jobi]

I have almost the same problem:
I need to distribute one single template to a lot of stand-alone computers.
Do I need some kind of installation program to install this template?

 

[Dreamboat]

scoob:

Change the workgroup template location on your first user PC (or yours, or whatever) to the server location where the template will be stored. Make sure you store it in a descriptive folder name like "Shared Templates" or "Company Templates" or something like that. Store any other shared templates here too. If you create subfolders, it's limited to 15 total, I think. The subfolders will show as tabs when the users hit File-New.

So, you've changed it.
Now Start-Run and type "regedit" (without quotes) and hit enter. Now browse to the following folder:

hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\9.0\common\general

The 9.0 is for Office 2000; for 97, it'll be 8.0; for XP it's 10.0

On the right, you'll see the data for this option. You'll see Shared Templates. Click on Shared Templates, go to the menu and hit Registry-Export, and save it to the desktop with whatever name you want, like "FixWord" or something.

Test it first: Send/copy that *.reg file to another user's PC and double-click it. Open Word and test to see that the Workgroup Templates location is where you want it to be. (In Word, Tools-Options-File locations-Workgroup Templates)

As long as it worked on one PC, email it to everyone, have them detach it to their desktop, and double-click it. That's it.

The *.reg files will enter whatever registry data is in them on the computer on which they are double-clicked.

TEST IT FIRST!!!

It will be a very good idea to set any shared templates as read-only or everyone will be making changes to it...better yet, give your user's only read rights to the folder.


jobi:

Just email it. Tell them to open the file directly from the email program, and hit File-Save as, change the files of type to Document Template and hit save. When you tell Word to save it as a template, it automatically opens the user template folder located under Tools-Options-File locations in Word. If you need a better fix than that, might be a little tough. The Workgroup templates is a better fix.
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[Dreamboat]

Sorry, jobi. To clarify for what you asked: NO, you do not have to INSTALL templates. They can be copied. You could, however, make a Winzip self-extracting executable that will automatically extract the file to the appropriate location. But you better make sure that user's all have the same location for their user templates.
techsupportgirl@home.com

http://www.PiersonTech.com

Brainbench MVP for Microsoft Word

 

[scoobydoo26]

thanks dreamboat!!