OFF95: Template Location in Shortcut Bar or Word Affects Program (136815)

SYMPTOMS

When you change the User Templates Location setting or the Workgroup Templates Location setting using the Settings tab in the Customize dialog box for the Office Shortcut Bar (OSB), the New dialog box in each of the Microsoft Office programs may display different tabs.

Additionally, if you change the User Templates or the Workgroup Templates setting in Microsoft Word (on the File Locations tab in the Options dialog box ), the New dialog box in each of the Microsoft Office programs may display different tabs.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because you can change the templates location settings used by each of the Office programs by using either the customize dialog box for the Office Shortcut Bar (the User Templates Location and Workgroup Templates Location settings) or the Options dialog box in Microsoft Word (User Templates and the Workgroup Templates settings). That is, if you change the templates location setting in the Customize dialog box for the Office Shortcut Bar, the setting is changed in Microsoft Word, and vice versa. Both of these locations affect the tabs displayed in the New dialog box in Microsoft Excel, Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and the New dialog box displayed by clicking the Start A New Document button on the Office Shortcut Bar.

MORE INFORMATION

The New dialog box displays the following:

A General tab, with the files (of a particular type described below) that are located in the folder specified by the User Templates and the Workgroup Templates setting

-and-
A tab for each of the sub folders that contains a file (of a particular type described below)

Each Office program searches for its own file types when you display the New dialog box (File menu) in the program. The following table displays the different file types that the Office programs search for.

Microsoft    Microsoft     Microsoft         Start A New
Excel        Word          PowerPoint        Document Button
-------------------------------------------------------------
 *.xls        *.doc         *.pot             *.xls
 *.xlt        *.dot                           *.xlt
              *.wiz                           *.doc
                                              *.dot
                                              *.wiz
                                              *.pot
                                              *.obd
                                              *.obt
                                              *.obz

For example, when you display the New dialog box in Microsoft Word, the program searches for all .doc, .dot, and .wiz files in the folder specified by the User Templates or Workgroup Templates location setting.

No Office Files in Template Location

When you display the New dialog box in your program, if the program does not find any of its specific files (as shown in the table above) in the folder specified by the User Templates or Workgroup Templates location setting, the following occurs:

Microsoft Word : A Blank Document icon appears on General tab the New dialog box.

Microsoft PowerPoint : The New dialog box displays an empty General or you receive the error message "No Template Categories Found."

Microsoft Excel : The New dialog box does not appear; a new workbook is automatically created.

Start A Document Button: A Blank Document, Blank Workbook, and Blank Binder icon appears on General tab in the New dialog box.