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You can change the template attached to a document at any time. When you do, all the macros, custom toolbars, menus, and keyboard shortcuts, as well as AutoText entries from the new template, automatically copy into the document. Any boilerplate text or graphics in the template do not copy into the document. Styles from the template are copied into the document only if you select the Automatically Update Document Styles option when you attach the template.
To change the template attached to a document, choose Tools --> Templates and Add-Ins to summon the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box, shown in Figure 1. Click the Attach button to bring up an Explorer-style dialog box that takes you to your template files. In this dialog box, select the template you want to attach to the document, and then click Open. (You may have to poke around a bit in various folders to find the template you want to attach.) If you want the styles from the template you're attaching to replace the styles in your document, make sure that the Automatically Update Document Styles box is checked. Then, click OK to attach the template.
Figure 1: The Templates and Add-Ins dialog box.
If you update styles and your document uses styles to control its formatting, the effects of the new template are immediately visible.
 | Changing the template attached to a document is one of the few Word actions that you cannot undo with the Edit --> Undo command. As a result, if you inadvertently attach the wrong template to a document, correcting your error can be difficult. That's because when you attach a new template, Word copies elements from the new template into the document, but does not remove elements from the document derived from the previous template. |
To illustrate the type of problem this situation can cause, suppose that you're working on a document that has a handful of custom styles, and you mistakenly attach a template that has 50 custom styles. Because you used the Automatically Update Document Styles option, those 50 styles are copied into your document. The problem arises: How can you get rid of them? You can choose File --> Templates to attach the correct template, but the 50 styles copied in from the incorrect template remain in your document! And you can't remove them easily.
To avoid this type of problem, save your document immediately before changing templates. Then, if you're not satisfied with the results after attaching the new template, you can revert to the previously saved version of the document if necessary by closing the document without saving changes and reopening the previously saved copy of the document.
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