I've been making a compilation of essays over the years written in Word with different settings (font, indents etc) and I'd like to put them all into the same Word format by making a page template and dropping them into it. How can I assure that they'll all obey the new template settings? Is there a special procedure to follow to do this?

You can't, but this is the best shot at it. The key to it all is Styles.
Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word
Tips for Understanding Styles in Word by Shauna Kelly

If your text is formatted using Styles rather than directly formatted, you should be able to tweak it fairly easily. If necessary, reapply the styles from the template after you insert the text into the new document.

If your text is formatted directly, i.e., you set the fonts, indents, etc. using those commands rather than Styles, you may want to paste as plain text and go through the pasted text and apply Styles after the fact.

If you haven't been using Styles for your formatting, better late than never.

Thanks for that Charles. I've been putting off using styles because I
found it a bit confusing. Time to bite the bullet, grasp the nettle and
get my act together. Your sound advice is very helpful and much appreciated.
Thanks a million, Charles. Top ho!

Max Downham
Australia

Quoting from my own note on one of those pages:

Quote:

Trying to use Word without understanding and using styles is like pushing on a string. I resisted learning and using styles for years and now regret every day of those years because although that string was still very hard to push, it kept getting longer and longer, and had some very important projects tied to it! Once you understand styles and the Word concept of organizing things into Chinese boxes everything falls into place and instead of pushing a string, you can push a button that turns on the very powerful text processing machine known as Microsoft Word and it will start doing your work for you instead of running around behind you trying to undo what you thought you just did. These statements should be even stronger for those using Word 2007-13. These versions let you use and change styles even more easily.

I feel as though I've stumbled upon a road sign in the sandstorm. It says 'Damascus, 5 miles'.

… but thanks to Charles, the sign also has a "this way" arrow :-}

You are welcome.