How do I ensure that Quick Style sets are sharable by others using a template?

"SEBBAHNEO" wrote in message news:f38cafd1-1856-4f8e-af67-f354d2ad045a...

I have created a Word 2007 template for use by my project team, but through testing, it became clear that the custom style set I created as part of this template is not showing up for others who open up the template. (It's not showing up as the default or in the list of style sets to select from.) How do I ensure that custom style sets "stay" with a template file?

Many thanks!
Sarah

"TerFar" <=?utf-8?B?VGVyRmFy?=> wrote in message news:10ec3dc3-36db-4e8e-9efb-0e5cd17714e5...

By default, they are saved to your normal.dotm. You need to save the styles either to the new template or better, save them to a new template and then get the users to place the style template in the Word Startup folder. The styles will then be globally available to the users for ALL their documents regardless of the template they are using.

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Terry Farrell - MSWord MVP

"SEBBAHNEO" wrote in message news:f38cafd1-1856-4f8e-af67-f354d2ad045a...

I have created a Word 2007 template for use by my project team, but through testing, it became clear that the custom style set I created as part of this template is not showing up for others who open up the template. (It's not showing up as the default or in the list of style sets to select from.) How do I ensure that custom style sets "stay" with a template file?

Many thanks!
Sarah

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Terry Farrell

I have been creating for about a year now. I'm no expert, and I haven't had occasion to share them with others, so I may not be able to help you.  But...

User-defined style sets are stored in the Quick Styles folder.  In XP the path is C:\Documents and Settings\[UserName]\Application Data\Microsoft\QuickStyles.  (No, I still haven't installed my nice new Windows 7 computer.) If you want the actual style set to be available to users, you'll have to get it into each user's QuickStyles folder. You might need to do this if you want to use different style sets with the same template.  Reapplying styles sets is also the faster way to restore style definitions after someone has been creative .   Probably the easiest (for users) way of getting the file to users' computers is to have your IT folks place it for you.

I'm sure you already know that if your custom quick styles are the template's styles gallery, that styles gallery will be in documents created from that template. If your needs are that simple, your users may not need access to the style set. 

(The built-in quick styles are in the program files.)

Pam

Good question.  I thought she meant her custom style set is not available in the users style set lists. 

Pam

"PamCaswell" <=?utf-8?B?UGFtQ2Fzd2VsbA==?=> wrote in message news:245b934d-3e8b-4c05-b2eb-59bda23ebf4f...

Good question.  I thought she meant her custom style set is not available in the users style set lists. 

Pam

 

 

Hi All.

I so appreciate all of the great insight into how custom style sets work in Microsoft 2007.

To clarify Beth's question, in the template I created, I can see my custom style set when I look in the Change Styles > Style Sets list, but when others open up the file, they are not able to see the named custom style set in their Style Sets lists.

Since I posted my original query, one of my coworkers, who is helping me troubleshoot, determined that Microsoft has a built-in feature that will automatically let you change the styles back to the Quick Style set used to create the template. She suggested testing it using the following procedure:

1.  Open the .dotx file as if you are creating a new document based on the template.

2.  Highlight a section of the document, and change the style set to something other than what it is. From theHome tab>Styles group>Change Styles>Style Set, select a style just to mess it up.

3.  Click somewhere in the white space to turn the highlight off.

4.  Select the same text, and clickHome tab>Styles group>Change Styles>Style Set>Reset to quick styles from xxxxxxxx(where xxxxxxxxx is the template name).

This may be the feature that we were looking for to ensure that all users have access to the custom style set (which apparently IS being embedded in the file if you do the above procedure). Is this the way that it's supposed to function? Is this what you would recommend?

Sarah

Thanks for the additional information. It helps a lot. :-)

First to add a bit of clarity:

• Quick Style Sets, those you see when you click Change Styles and point to Style Sets, are specific to each user and custom Style Sets are stored in the user's profile. (to migrate Quick Style Sets to other users, see Pam's reply in this thread.) Think of Quick Style Sets as a type of formatting template for a document. They enable you to easily share a set of styles between documents/templates. Ideally, if all you need is to utilze specific styles in certain documents then you can use a Quick Style Set instead of creating a template for formatting only, as we did prior to Word 2007.

Note if you create a custom Quick Style Set, only those styles shown in the Styles gallery will be saved to the Style set. If there are styles that appear in the Styles task pane but not in the gallery, they will not be saved to the Quick Style Set.

• Styles that are visible in the Styles gallery and Styles task pane are specific to the template. Word doesn't automatically create a Quick Style set from the styles in your template. A user can, however, open a document based on the template and use the Change Styles/Style Set/Save as Quick Style Set command to create a Quick Style Set for use in any document.

Second, what you're encountering isn't how it's supposed to function. :-) When a user creates a new document based on your template the custom styles should automatically display.  What you describe is indeed odd. Here's how the "Reset to Quick Styles from <template name>" was designed to be used: If a user has been working on document and either changed the styles in some way, such as manuallymodified a style or switched to another Quick Style Set, you can change the styles back to those in the template. It's like an undo for style changes in a document. (Note you don't need to select text to change a Quick Style Set or reset.) But based on your description, it sounds like the styles are modified as soon as a document is created -- you shouldn't need to "undo styles" if no changes have been made to the styles in the document.

Second:

When you create a new document based on the template, do the styles show differently in the Styles gallery? If so then if you start Word in Safe Mode, (hold Ctrl while starting Word and continue holding until prompted to start in Safe Mode) and create a new document based on the template, does the issue still occur?

If it does, then open the template and go to Change Styles, Style Set, is Reset Document Quick styles enabled? If so, what happens if you click the command? Do your styles change?

If the styles display correctly when you start Word in Safe Mode after creating new document based on your template then I'd say an add-in/macro is automatically changing the styles when a document is created. If this is what you find, post back and we'll go from there.