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Need Word 2010 File/New to display workgroup templates instead of Office.com templates

Word 2010 seems to have removed the easy access to workgroup and local templates provided in Word 2003 and earlier versions.

File/New in Word 2010 goes to a page titled "Available Templates", which mostly shows templates available for download from office.com. Workgroup templates (e.g. company letterhead, company fax headers, company report formats saved on the network) and personal (local) templates are given much less prominence and require users to click "My Templates" for access.

This causes confusion for many users in a corporate environment.

How do Experts recommend resolving this issue?

For example, can My Templates be expanded as the default, with Office.Com templates given less prominence or even hidden completely?

ProfessorBindokas

Hi,

This help and support page from Microsoft describes how to change the templates location and get rid of the pre-installed Microsoft-made templates from the templates window. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924460

Hope this answers your question.

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ASKER

Thanks for your prompt response, Professor. However, that support page doesn't seem to help with my problem.

I have already set up the correct directory for workgroup templates. My problem is that the File/New Available Templates screen hides them under "My Templates" which requires users to know to make an additional click. The majority of the Available Templates screen is filled with Office.com templates which we would rarely, if ever, need.

So the problem is still open.

ProfessorBindokas

In Office 2007 it was possible to remove them entirely through a registry change, but am not sure if this will work for 2010, though. In 2007 it was done by editing the Registry under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Internet

Create a new DWORD value named:
DisableTemplatesOnTheWeb
Value: 1

This forced use of the old-style New dialogue box without the Online options. Once again, since I have not tried this for 2010, am not sure about this for the new office, but worth a shot as a suggestion.

ProfessorBindokas

As an addendum - the registry key for office 2010 will be Office\14 not 12.

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ASKER

Thanks, Professor. I note that Microsoft describe that key as a hotfix for Office 2007 in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953474.

The location of the key has moved in Office 2010 to software\microsoft\office\14.0\common\internet (source: http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/3/F/C3F8BD05-1743-4D7D-849C-C352B0F61835/Office2010GroupPolicyAndOCTSettings_Reference.xls).

However, this did not seem to do anything.

ProfessorBindokas

Sorry that I couldn't be of more help. If the above two options didn't work, am unfortunately out of ideas on this one. Looking forward to seeing what the final solution will be.

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ASKER

Thanks, ProfessorBindokas

I shall try to re-post the question.

R. Andrew Koffron

have a look at this KB
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924460

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ASKER

Thanks, Harel66.

ProfessorBindokas included that link in his first post, but I can't seen anything in it that helps.

R. Andrew Koffron

have you considered rolling back the version, or just making a short cut to the network templates and pining to every machines start button?

R. Andrew Koffron

and don't get me wrong, I agree with you! it's annoying as hell.

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ASKER

Harel66,

Are you suggesting going back to Office 2003? If so, that is not an option as we need the functionality of Office 2010?

Presumably, your second suggestion is a workaround using Windows rather than within Word. Is this correct?

R. Andrew Koffron

yes I mean't make shortcuts to the dot, xlt files, and put them in a folder, pin the folder to the start menu, it's not perfect but is easy to explain to users, and will be in their face every time the click start.

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ASKER

I have found another solution, but within Word:

Right-click on the ribbon and choose Customize Ribbon
Choose Commands not in the ribbon from the drop-down box Choose commands from:
Select New Document or Template and add it to a custom group on the ribbon

This adds a button to the ribbon which brings up a dialogue box similar to Office 2003.

As with Harel66's Windows work-around, this Office work-around is easy to explain to users.

If I find a way of getting this to the general File/New page, I will post here.

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ASKER

While the experts were able to suggest a work-around outside of Word (which did not remove the confusing nature of the Word default), I was subsequently able to find other solutions which directly addressed the problem within Word.

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ASKER

Correction to the code above:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\General\ShowOnlyOffice2003NewDocumentDialog

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