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To create a document based on a template other than Normal.dot, you must choose File --> New. The New Document task pane displays. From the Templates section of the New Document task pane, click the On My Computer link to bring up the Templates dialog box, shown in Figure 1. From this dialog box, you pick the template on which you want to base the new document, and then click OK to create the document.
Figure 1: The Templates dialog box.
The Templates dialog box has a series of tabs that lead to different categories of document templates. The default tab, General, shows three templates: Blank Document, which is in reality the Normal.dot template; Web Page; and E-Mail message. Other tabs display other templates that come with Word.
 | Both the Ctrl+N keyboard shortcut and the New Blank Document button on the Standard toolbar completely bypass the Templates dialog box, automatically using the Normal.dot template for the new document. The only way to create a document based on a template other than Normal.dot is to use the File --> New command. |
When you create a new document based on a template, any text and graphics contained in the template automatically copy into the new document. Templates are often used for this purpose to supply text or graphics that always appear in certain types of documents. For example, a Memo template would contain a standard memo header. A Letter template would contain your letterhead. If you attach a template to an existing document, the text and graphics contained in the template do not copy into the document. The formatting of the template, however, can be applied to the existing document.
If you pick a wizard rather than a template from the Templates dialog box, the wizard leads you through a series of prompts to gather information about the document that you want to create. It then creates the document for you. When the wizard finishes, the document is fully formatted and loaded with styles, but it is based on the Normal.dot template. In this case, the wizard creates the formatting and styles; they are not drawn from a template.
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