That is how templates work. Double-clicking on one creates a new document.


Templates in Microsoft Word

When that is saved, as a document, it will lose some of the attributes it had as a template, but it should not lose any text.

Hyperlinks in the document should work fine though. How were these created? What do they link to?

BTW Word 14 = Word 2010. I assume you are using Windows 8.

Thanks for the advice, as you will have gathered word processing is not one of my strong points.
I work in a school for children with physical disabilities, learning difficulties and autism. When it comes to accessing ICT every pupil has individual requirements, which led me to try and create a template for a document which each pupil would have in a named folder, containing their photo, information for anyone working with them about their access needs, use of external switches, eye gaze etc and also hyperlinks to other word documents containing assessment criteria etc. I used Insert and Hyperlink from the tool bar at the top of the page.
I think my problem has been that starting with limited knowledge I began by putting boxes into a word document and then found ways to tackle each problem as it arose, boxes moving around, photos needing resizing every time, text going missing. Eventually by grouping and ungrouping boxes and saving as a Word Template I ended up with something into which photos and text can be inserted without everything moving around but I’m not sure how stable it is overall.
Could I have done it differently? It needs to be easily accessible and have the facility to insert photos, paste in text and type in text directly and, hopefully, open with a double click.