If you right-click a Word template file in File Explorer, the command
New should be shown in boldface as the default, instead of
Open which is the default for document files. If the bold command is
Open or
Edit, you may be able to fix it by reregistering Word. Press Windows key and R to open a Run box, enter the command
winword.exe /r
and press Enter. You won't see anything happen, but Word will rewrite its registry entries, and that may fix the problem.
If the templates still open instead of creating a new document, you'll have to make a small manual edit in the registry. In the Run box, type
regedit
and press Enter. You'll get a UAC prompt to let it run. On the left side of the regedit program, expand and scroll the tree to locate the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Template.12\shell. This key controls the operations for .dotx template files. Follow the instructions
at
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/back-up-the-registry to export the key to a backup file with a .reg extension. (Yes, the article says it's for Vista, but nothing has changed through Windows 8.1 with respect to this.)
Now, with the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Template.12\shell key selected, look at the right side of the program. There should be a single line that says
(Default) REG_SZ Open
or possibly
(Default) REG_SZ Edit
Double-click the (Default) to open a little window:
Erase the value
Open and type in the value
New, then click OK.
Repeat all of these steps (including exporting the key) for the shell keys under Word.Template.8 (that represents .dot files) and under Word.TemplateMacroEnabled.12 (that's for .dotm files). Close the regedit program.
Now try double-clicking your templates to verify that they create new documents.
If you haven't fixed the problem with this process, you can restore the original values by double-clicking the .reg files that you saved as backups.
