Styles and templates are a powerful tool that can save you time and ensure a document's visual consistency.

Understanding the link between your document and its template is important for working effectively with styles.  Making modifications is easier.  This article limits the scope to making the change.

Templates and Styles

After you've created the document, you can modify the page layout, style definitions, or even add new styles to the document without affecting the template.

To get a fundamental understanding, examine the figure below:

What you are looking at is my favorites.  I've modified my styles so that when I start a new-blank-document Word automatically provides me with my preferences.  This saves me time and effort.

Notice (description), I changed the default font, font size, and font color.

I used the modify button (at right) to open a dialog that allows changes to formats (see below).

This article won't explore each of the formats.  However, if you've used these formats in your documents then you'll probably find using the dialogs intuitive.

Some of the dialogs are exactly the same as the document formats.  The next figure give you the broader view of the modify dialog.

Modify a Style,

in a Document
and Its Template
at the Same Time
 

Just as I did, you may want to modify a style in your document and, later always have that change reflected in the document's template.

This is easy to do; just select Add to template in the Modify Style dialog box as you are changing the style definition.

If Add to template is not selected, Word will only store the new style definition in the document you are working on.

Make Sure Style Changes in the Template Appear in the Document

It is easy to have Word automatically refresh style definitions from the template to your document, but you might want to make a copy of your document before you start.

On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins, and then make sure the correct template and path are listed under Document template. Select the Automatically update document styles check box, click OK, and then save and close your document.  The next time you open your document, the styles will be updated.

Note
When you select the Automatically update document styles check box, Word will overwrite styles in your document with any styles that have changed from the attached template. If you only want this to occur one time, select the Automatically update document styles check box, and then save and close your file.  When you reopen your document, the styles will be updated.  Next, clear the Automatically update document styles check box, and then save your document. Word will no longer update the styles in your document from the template.

Overwrite a Document's Style Definitions with the Styles from Its Template

1. Open your document
2. On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add-Ins.
   Under Document template, make sure the appropriate template is attached to your document and that the Automatically update document styles check box is selected.
3. Click the Organizer button.
4. In the Organizer dialog box, click the Styles tab, and then open your document on one side and the template you want to copy styles from on the other.
5. In the box that contains the styles from the template, click the first style, and then click CTRL+SHIFT+END to select all the styles in the box.
6. Click the Copy button to copy the styles from the template to the document.
   You will be asked if you want to overwrite the existing style; click Yes to All.
7. Close the Organizer dialog box.

The styles in your document will now match the ones in its template.  However, any new styles in your document that you have not added to the template will not change.  Also, elements of your document's layout (such as margins and headers) will not be affected since they are not part of style definitions.

All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. Neither myself, nor contributors are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from your choosing to use any information presented here.