Finding the Office Templates Folder

Helen Feddema
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You need to know the location of the Office templates folder, so that when you create new templates, they are saved to that location, and thus are available for selection when creating new documents.  The steps to find the Templates folder path are given for Office versions from 2003 through 2016.

Word, Excel and Outlook templates that you create should be stored in the Office Templates folder, or a sub-folder underneath it.  In order to do that, you have to know where this folder is located, and that location is far from obvious.


Here are instructions for how to find the location of the Office Templates folder for Office 2003 through 2016.  You do need to look, since it is possible for a user to select a non-default folder as the Templates folder, and if you place your templates somewhere other than the designated folder, you won't be able to see them when creating new documents.


Office 2003

  1. To  locate the Office Templates folder, open any Word document, select  Tools|Options and click the File Locations page. Note the folder path for the User Templates folder.




  2. If the folder name is cut off, click the Modify button, then drop down the Templates item in the address bar to show the path (or most of it; the C:\Users\ portion is omitted):


  3. Typically the folder will be one of these paths (but it may be in another folder, or it may be a custom path):
    • C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
    • C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates


Office 2007

  1. To locate the Office Templates folder, open any Word document, click the large Office button in the upper-left corner, and then click the Word Options button.


  2. In the Word Options dialog, select the Advanced item in the left pane, and click the File Locations button at the bottom of the screen.


  3. Look at the UserTemplates line.


  4. To see the entire path, click the Modify button, then click in the address bar to show the path:


  5. Typically the folder will be in C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but it may be in a different location, depending on your Windows version, or it may be a custom path.


Office 2010

  1. To locate the Office Templates folder, open any Word document, click the File tab and then the Options link on the left side.


  2. This opens the Word Options dialog; click the Advanced link on the left side and scroll all the way down to the bottom, then click the File Locations button:


  3. Look at the UserTemplates line; most likely it will be cut off:


  4. To see the entire path, click the Modify button, then click in the address bar to show the path:


  5. Typically the folder will be in C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but it may be in a different location, depending on your Windows version, or it may be a custom path.


Office 2013

  1. To locate the Office Templates folder, open any Word document, click the File tab and then the Options link on the left side.


  2. This opens the Word Options dialog; click the Advanced link on the left side and scroll all the way down to the bottom, then click the File Locations button:


  3. Look at the UserTemplates line; most likely it will be cut off:


  4. To see the entire path, click the Modify button, then click in the address bar to show the path:


  5. Typically the folder will be in C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but it may be in a different location, depending on your Windows version, or it may be a custom path.


Office 2016

  1. To locate the Office Templates folder, open any Word document, click the File tab and then the Options link on the left side.


  2. This opens the Word Options dialog; click the Advanced link on the left side and scroll a long way down, then click the File Locations button:


  3. Look at the UserTemplates line; most likely it will be cut off:


  4. To see the entire path, click the Modify button, then click in the address bar to show the path:


  5. Typically the folder will be in C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, but it may be in a different location, depending on your Windows version, or it may be a custom path.


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Helen Feddema
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Comments (5)

Dave GoodmansonData Analyst

Commented:
Helen I'm running Access 2016, I have read your article and while it is good for Word 2016, I haven't had any success trying to find the Access 2016 folder.  I want to find that folder so I can put a Northwind.accdt in there to have as an option to open from file/new databases.  Any suggestions?
Thanks.
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Commented:
I will see if I can get that information.
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Commented:
David -- this is most curious.  For Access 2010, the location for database templates is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Access.  But for Access 2016, it is C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Templates\1033\Access\Part.  I have 64-bit Office and Windows, in case that makes a difference (it probably does).

Commented:
Suggest adding a notation regarding hidden files.

Spent over an hour this morning trying to locate Normal.dotm in Word 2016.  
It took an hour because the AppData folder in C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates is a hidden folder.  
Only after finding and changing the display option for hidden folders was I able to locate and update Normal.dotm

Commented:
I am still having problems accessing the created templates using Word 2013.  I understand we need to direct the File Locations to the proper directory, which I have done.  Now what?  I can't see any way to access these files AS templates.  We could do this in Word 2007 and Word 2010, but NOT in Word 2013.  I do not know how to properly access them.

Thank you for your help.

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