I'm creating a letter-template for a customer with about 1 000 users so I better get it right.



I have set up new theme-coulors and saved them with a new name, the same with the fonts, and then finaly saved it as a new theme.
After that I saved the document as a template (.dotx) on my desktop.

It works fine in my computer but when I open the file in an other computer (still word 2010) the theme, coulors and fonts are lost.
If I look in themes the name ist'nt there, nighter is the coulor or the fonts.

I thought the theme with fonts and colors would be included in the document?! Am I doing something wrong or do I have to distribute the theme separately?

Some of the customers are using word 2000 so I have to save the document as a .dot-file for them. Howe do I make sure they got the right fonts and coulors? (2000 seems to be a "pre-themes" version)

Thanks in advance, I realy need your help here...

Each theme is saved as a separate document with the *.thmx extension. If you want to distribute not only the formatting added to the document but also the actual theme, you'll have to send the *.thmx file as well. Place it in the Document Themes folder in each user's computer.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Okay, so that mean that for the user of Word 2010 I have to save a .dotx template and distribute it togheter with the theme I crated?!
Will the document chose the theme by itself if it is installed, or do the users have to chose it every time the use my template?

But they also have users of Word 2000!
Therefore I also need to distribute a separate .dot template for them.
How do I make sure that these users of older versions get the right set-up of colours and fonts? (I need to to the work from my Word 2010).

Fonts:
I got problem to embed the font in the document but that is an other thread:
https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/...t-advance.html
But if we ignore that for the moment, I have created paragraph formats and used them in my dummy-text so that will work.
But I also want the default fonts to be correct if the customer got the idea to make a new textbox or accidentally delete my dummy-text. How do I do that for the .dot document?

Colors:
The company has a set-up of 10 colours that I included in the color-theme but I haven't actually used them in the document. How do I get the .dot document to show my created colour-scheme as default if the user wants to colour something?

Thanx in advance!
/Kattis

1) For those who will be using Word 2000, save your document as a Word 2000 template (not simply a .dot file). Word 2000 does not use themes, so any fonts and colors you want have to be embedded in the template. The fonts and colours should be in the styles.

2) Themes are intended to allow a person to quickly change the look and feel of a document by changing a theme. Do you want your 2010 users to be able to do this with your template? I think not. To avoid this in the Word 2010 template will require (I think) use of custom styles not based on built-in styles with a formatting restriction to only use those styles. In any case, distributing the theme separately would be a real headache unless you are using installation software.

3) The setting for Automatically update styles from template should be turned off (unchecked).

Why are you using dummy text?

Consider instead using Macrobutton Fields or a UserForm. The latter requires that macros be enabled for your template. Macrobutton fields, despite the name, do not require macros. See Macrobutton Fields and Create a Simple Userform

In setting up your letter template, take a look at Setting Up Letter Templates, the sample Basic Letterhead Template and the Letterhead Textboxes and Styles Tutorial. Use of the StyleRef field in your continuation page header is important so that changes made in the body of the letter (like a name, date, or subject) are reflected in that header.

Colours are nice. Will all users be using colour printers? Have you discussed this with your customer?

Finally, unless there is some strong reason to do otherwise (like using content controls in Word 2010) I would distribute the template designed for Word 2000 to all users.

Fonts are usually a product of the operating system and the applications installed. If you are producing for computers using Windows 2000 and Word 2000, you probably should be testing on a computer using that configuration. If there are custom fonts, those would have to be distributed with your template, which would probably require a license.

The settings stored in the template will be used when new documents are created from that template. So if the styles in your template have the appropriate settings, there shouldn't be a problem.

As long as you don't want users to apply a theme, you don't have to distribute it.

For more on themes, see http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-...-document.aspx.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks for a very committed response! Se my folow-up questions/answers in red below:

I hope that you or someone else can answer the question about how to include the colours in the document.
Thanks for all your support so far!

I actually don't want them to chose a theme, I hoped the theme could be pre-chosen and included in the document but I realise that isn't the case.

In my reply to Charles, you can tell that my problem is to include the colour scheme in the template.
When the user want to colour a text, a line or something else, I want it to be the companys colours that turn up to chose from.
How do I do that (if it can be done) ?

1) For those who will be using Word 2000, save your document as a Word 2000 template (not simply a .dot file).
What do you mean with "not simply a .dot-file? I save it as a 97- 2003 template, that is the only .dot format I can see?! Is there any other .dot format?
Under the compatibility options you set it to only use features available in Word 2000. One way of getting to this is File > Options > Advanced.
These are at the very bottom of the dialog box.

2) Themes are intended to allow a person to quickly change the look and feel of a document by changing a theme. Do you want your 2010 users to be able to do this with your template? I think not. To avoid this in the Word 2010 template will require (I think) use of custom styles not based on built-in styles with a formatting restriction to only use those styles. In any case, distributing the theme separately would be a real headache unless you are using installation software.
Well, my only wish is to give them a document with:
a) My paragraph styles and Museo (the font) as the default-font.
If I can make the font-embedding work I think my company-paragraph-styles in combination with setting the standard font will take care of that.
Again, make some custom styles with these fonts. Have your entire template use these styles. In addition, change the fonts in all of the styles to be those that are acceptable to your template and theme.

b) The company selection of preferred colours.
This seems like a bigger problem if I not using the theme-colour witch I can't if Im going to save it as a 97-2003-template.
So HOW do I set the company colour-scheme for them to chose from???
Styles won't do it as far as I can understand?!
I don't know anything about colour palettes. Sorry. Restricting a 2000 template to a particular colour palette is beyond my experience. You can use the character styles like Emphasis, and Strong, as well as the variations on them. This goes against my advice to make custom styles. Emphasize in training how to make color changes by using styles and have character styles that implement what you want. See http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/o...0-05cc8db807e1

3) The setting for Automatically update styles from template should be turned off (unchecked).
Where can I find this checkbox?
If you start with a document before making it a template, it is on the Developer Tab under the Document Template button. The button is disabled in templates but the setting in the original document carries through to documents made from the template.

Colours are nice. Will all users be using colour printers? Have you discussed this with your customer?
There is hardly any B&W printers left in the offices today and most letters are sent by e-mail or as pdf anyway. The correct colour is an important part of the company's brand in all marketing material and even letters.
The question is HOW do I get the company colour scheme available in the document without using theme-colour?
Again, use character styles to carry your color selections and train users to use them.