Best practices for distributing custom templates?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Amelia DeLoach wonders: <<I'm developing a Microsoft Word template that 
will be distributed to all 300 associates within my organization. One 
issue that we're concerned with is how to update the templates in the 
future. We need to make updating the template as easy as possible so 
that users will actually update it themselves and we can be *assured* 
that they have made the updates.>>

The most effective approach _if you have "managed" PCs_ is for the head 
of your computer department use the remote administration tools 
provided by the PC's manufacturer. These tools let administrators 
install software updates directly over the network on all managed PCs. 
Because the new/revised template can be installed directly in each 
user's Templates folder, you know that the template is up to date and 
easily accessible, even when the network is down or unavailable.

Unfortunately, many companies don't invest in this kind of setup. In 
that case, try solution 2: Install the template on your network, and 
give everyone the URL (if it's an intranet) or directory path (if not) 
to the file. No installations required other than on the network 
itself, and you only ever have to update a single file. The big problem 
with this approach is that people tend to like installing templates 
locally (particularly if your network is at all unreliable or if they 
often work off-site with laptops), and quickly end up with outdated 
templates.

You can kludge a solution together easily enough by creating a startup 
macro (see Word's online help for details) that loads whenever someone 
opens the custom template: the macro looks at the document's 
information box, and if the pathname doesn't point at the current file 
on the network, will open the network version of the template instead. 
This would take a bit of Visual Basic trickery (beyond my skills), but 
it should be feasible.

A simpler solution might be to create what is essentially a blank 
template that won't actually be used, but to which your custom template 
(stored on the network) is attached. (Do this via the Tools-->Templates 
and Add-ins menu choice.) Every time someone opens the blank version of 
the template, however old it may be, Word will load the custom template 
from the network and use that template's settings. I'm not networked 
and thus can't test how well this works, but you can test it yourself 
quite quickly.

A third solution: If the custom template is used primarily when someone 
is assigned a task, and if you track these tasks, then you can ensure 
that the task management system sends that person the current template 
along with the task. This is less complicated than it sounds; at my 
former employer, we used to do this in Outlook, using nothing more 
sophisticated than Outlook's built-in task management system, with a 
few customizations for elegance.

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5 - ALL NEW VERSION!! 

Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content 
Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! 

Download a free trial today: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l4

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.