getting rid of templates

How one can inadvertently create several templates is hard to fathom. Are you opening your templates through File, New and gooing to the appropriate tab to select your template? When you do this Word creates a new Word document from the template and the default file type for saving it will be *.doc. If not, you may be going to a location where you stored a template and opening it. In that case, the default File Type for saving will be the same as the document you are working from, in this case a template. Then every new document you make from the temlate will also be a template.

I would first check the folder where your templates are stored (in Word go to Tools, Options, File Locations, and check the location for User Templates. Then close Word. To delete templates, seach for them in Windows Explorer. You are looking for every file with the name "*.dot" (without the quotes). All word templates end with this suffix You have to figure out which is the template you created. Delete the rest. One of the templates is normal.dot, the default template for every document in Word. Unless you have made substantial changes to normal.dot, you can delete this one, too (Word will automatically recreate normal dot the next time you start Word.

Thanks Joe, but I am still confused.  I can see why I made so many templates but I can't get to a place where I can delete them.  I have Windows XP.  When I had Windows 98 and Works 6 (and no WORD) I had no problem with seeing what I was doing and handling the templates.  This is the first time I had to deal with Word.

I  can't find Windows Explorer.  What gets opened is MY Documents and that gets me no place.

I did what you told me and was told that the location was C:\...Microsoft\templates   BUT that was all of the templates that came with WORKS, not the ones I created. 

I have tried to run .dot through search and get the same - all of the templates that came with WORKS.  I think I may have to live with these and just be careful when I make a new one.

When I want to open a template, I go to WORKS, Templates, Personnel templates and there is where I have so many.  I can open the one I want and when I SAVE it goes to the file where I save each months files (I am using a spread sheet treasurers report) Each year I have to make another template as some of the information changes.  I can do that, but seeing all of the other ones I don't need is a bore.  Thanks for getting back to me and I will keep trying to find the right place to delete them.  I do know that every once in a while I see something that says normal.dot and I will really look over that and see what caused it and how to get rid of that.

 

Carol

I think if you are using Word, you will have Word templates. Obviously you know where they are stored but you can't see them. Word templates, along with a lot of other files, are usually "hidden." I don't have any experience with XP, but if it has any similarity to older versions of Windows you may have to change the settings to allow you to see "hidden" files. I don't know how to do that in XP. Try looking in Help for Folder Options. I can't imagine not having Windows Explorer--it has traditionally been part of Windows. There must be something like it in XP. Is there a My Computer icon on your desktop? In Win Me and 2000 that opens Windows Explorer so you can search for files, browse, etc. This is also where you can change your settings to show hidden folders in Folder Options. I also have no experience with Works. Well, actually, I had a little. Came with my Dell computer. It was pretty awful so I quickly got rid of it in favor of Office.

Here's another suggestion: look for the stuff in Word. You know from Word where it is storing its templates. Open Word and navigate to that folder. To see them be sure when you are doing so that you set Files of Type in the Open Files window to either "All files" (you will see all files) or "Document Templates" (you will see only *.dot files). You can open the Word templates if you want to see what each contains or to modify any and save them (Word will save them as *.dot files). You should also be able to delete any that you definitely don't want.

What do you get if you click on File, New in Word? You should see all your Word templates--and a lot of others that may come with the software. I wonder if you may be better off using your Word template(s) this way to create new documents rather than whatever you are doing through Works. That way you are only dealing with one program's idiosyncracies instead of two. When you open a new document this way it will be saved by default as a *.doc file unless you change the Files of Type/Save as Type setting in the Save As window. You can save the new document as another template if you want, but you have to take some deliberate steps to do that. As a matter of fact, Word will not let you save your new document over top of your template--if you try to do so you will get an error message to the effect that the file or template is in use.


Hope this helps a little.

Carhar,

To open Windows Explorer in XP go to Start|All Programs|Accessories. Windows Explorer is in that group. You can locate your templates by going to Start|Search|All Files and Folder and specify *.dot as the search parameter. I don't have Works but in Office the templates are located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033. You can delete them there or, if you choose, right-click the ones you don't want when Search locates them and select "Delete" from the context menu. This location will contain the standard Word templates.

The location your individually created templates are probably located in is C:\Documents and Settings\ Your account\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. The Application Data folder is a hidden folder. To view its contents open Windows Explorer and go to Tools|Options|View tab and check "Show hidden files and folders."

To get Windows Explorer to open to an expanded view of your C:\ partition, which was normal in Windows 98, right-click the Windows Explorer shortcut in All Programs|Accessories (and wherever else it appears), select Properties, and in the Target: box enter %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,c:\ (there is a space after .exe and before /n).

Message Edited by Denny Denham on 11-30-2004 09:39 AM