Problem transferring my Word shortcuts to clean local installs of Word using custom .dotm -> AppData

[cedi0003]

Here are my circumstances:

• University campus where I am frequently changing between PCs, with the following properties
  
  • Each PC I access has a shared intranet e.g., C:\Users\[myName] and my OneDrive
  • Each PC has a local clean install of Word, no syncing Word setup files like
    • C:\Users\[myName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
    • C:\Users\[myName]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office
  • However, I can freely modify these to suit my needs at a given PC and my changes will stay semi-permanently

Here is what I am trying to achieve: a quick way to transfer my Word shortcuts to each fresh PC I use. These shortcuts pertain to my own custom styles in a custom Word Template, and shortcuts for more general word functions.

I understand that shortcuts live in documents, and that the default shortcuts live in Normal.dotm.

So my idea was the following:

• Make my own PerfectSetup.dotm file and store it on my OneDrive
  • This will include all my preferred keyboard shortcuts. I'll take care to assign them to this document, and not the local Normal.dotm for the PC I happen to be on
• Every time I use a new PC, I will drag my PerfectSetup.dotm to C:\Users\[myName] \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, delete the Normal.dotm and rename my file to Normal.dotm

I've tried this and it hasn't worked. I need someone who knows more about the internal workings of Word to tell me what it is I am likely doing wrong. I have a theory that maybe all the shortcuts are hard linked to the name of my template file, PerfectSetup.dotm, so when I changed the name I essentially deleted all the shortcuts therein. But this is very time consuming to test so if you can suggest your own solution to what I am trying to achieve (a quick way to transfer my Word shortcuts to every fresh local install of Word) I would much appreciate it.

[#2]

@cedi0003 

For keyboard shortcuts, QAT modifications, and building blocks, you do not need a .dotm file. A .dotx will work fine. You need a .dotm if the file is also to contain macros. Any keyboard shortcuts to macros and any QAT buttons for macros should be stored in the same file that contains the macros.

For portability you do not want these stored in your Normal.dotm file but in one or more custom templates. To work for all of your documents, they go in the Word Startup Folder. This makes them "global templates."

Keyboard shortcuts can be copied to a different template using an old utility written by Chris Woodman.

Resources:

• Assigning Keyboard Shortcuts in Microsoft Word 2007-2021 (365)
• Global Templates
• Startup Folder
• Chris Woodman's Keyboard Shortcut Organizer
• Modifying the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) in Microsoft Word
• Where can Building Blocks be stored?
• Organizing your macros by Beth Melton, Word MVP
• Organizing your Add-Ins by Greg Maxey

[#3]

@Charles_Kenyon 

Thankyou for your reply Charles.

1. Re: dotm vs dotx, that's useful information, thankyou. I don't currently rely on any macros so I will probably revert to dotx
2. So you're saying that, when moving between several machines, it's easier to leave normal.dotm alone and have a one or more dotx files with styles and keyboard shortcuts in them? Sub questions:
   1. Because of my university intranet setup, my Word startup folder (which I think is AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates?) is not shared across the many PCs I use. If I simply store them in a OneDrive folder and double click them to use them, will I be safe from losing my keyboard shortcuts?
   2. Does changing a dotx filename destroy the keyboard shortcuts associated with it?
   3. When I double click a dotx, it makes a new unsaved document. Will these documents reliably inherit the shortcuts of the dotx file that I double-clicked to create them? Including when moving across machines?
3. Thanks for Chris Woodman utility. This will be handy on my laptop, but won't be an option at the university because they disallow exe files.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

@cedi0003 

1. Chris Woodman's utility is not an .exe file. His original is a .dot template and my updated version is a .dotm template.

2. Styles should be stored in document, not global templates. The Normal template is an exception but should not be a shared template. Look into using a Workgroup Templates folder to hold your document templates. You can copy styles from one template to another using the Organizer. You should also look into storing some style customizations in [Quick] Style Sets. See my article [Quick] Style Sets and Word Themes in Microsoft Word.

3. You can set your Word Startup Folder to be any folder you want. You do not use templates in the startup folder as the basis for new documents. These are Global Templates that share many customizations with all other documents and templates when they are "loaded.." They are automatically loaded by being in the Startup Folder.
4. When you double-click on a .dotx or .dotm template, it creates a new document based on that template and is attached to that template. See What is the relationship between a Microsoft Word document and its template? Keyboard shortcuts, macros, and QAT modifications in a document template are not inherited by the document but are available so long as the template is attached. The same modifications that are in a global template are available in all documents on a machine where that template is loaded. Styles in a template become styles in the document and travel with the document.
5. Editing, renaming, and copying templates that contain keyboard shortcuts does not change the shortcuts.
6. I keep my Normal.dotm, my User Templates Folder, my Workgroup Templates folder and my Startup Folder in folders on my computer which are synced to Dropbox. I have all of my computers synced to the same Dropbox folders but the settings for the file locations of those are the local files that are synced. I am not that trusting of cloud folders. In addition, I regularly backup my Normal.dotm file using a macro. Backup Normal.dotm template using a macro 
7. My custom building blocks are virtually all stored in global templates, not in the Building Blocks.dotx file nor the Normal.dotm file.
8. See Word 2007 & Later Key Data File Locations for other files that you may want to be backing up, especially including language-specific custom dictionary files and AutoCorrect. See How to Backup/Copy/Move AutoCorrect Entries  and Mastering the Spelling Checker by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP .

[#5]

@cedi0003 

---

@cedi0003 wrote:

@Charles_Kenyon 

Thank you for your reply Charles.

1.  
   1. Because of my university intranet setup, my Word startup folder (which I think is AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates?) is not shared across the many PCs I use. If I simply store them in a OneDrive folder and double click them to use them, will I be safe from losing my keyboard shortcuts?

---

The Word Startup Folder which holds global templates, the User Templates folder that holds the Normal.dotm file, and the Workgroup Templates folder should be separate folders. They serve different purposes. There is a fourth templates folder location as well: The default save location for custom templates. I have that designated to be the same folder as my User Templates Folder but it can be separate and is separate by default.

See File New Variations in the Versions of Word for details.

With very, very, few exceptions, templates stored in the Startup Folder are never used as the basis for new documents. Those in the Workgroup Templates folder and the User Templates folder are used for that.

Most of the links about templates are to my chapter on templates.

[#6]

@Charles_Kenyon 

Thank you Charles. The "What is the relationship between a Microsoft Word document and its template?" essay was very useful and to-the-point (although the inner-workings of Word are amusingly arcane)

So if I understand correctly:

1. Styles/content/page layout are inherited once at conception, then interact no more
2. Keyboard shortcuts (and macros and some other things) exist in an ongoing relationship with the template

So, I think some of the strange behaviour I was observing was not that renaming removed shortcuts from my templates, but that it severed the connection between the template and its children.

If I need to move a template, is there a way to explicitly direct a child to where its template now lives?

My main goal is to not sever the connection while using 50 different unsynced versions of Word.

I'd like to follow best practice in regards to where I store things, but also I want to expediate very quickly setting up on new machines. I should note that I don't have admin access on these machine.

So, would you advise that I change the start-up folder to a dedicated startup folder on my OneDrive every time I sit at a new machine (and back up to avoid cloud troubles)?

Edit:

"Styles should be stored in document, not global templates"
Some of the shortcuts I want to always have available are style shortcuts. So they are excluded from global template, is that correct?

Will this be effective?

1. Make a OneDrive folder with two subfolders, startup and user templates
2. In "startup", make a dotx (dotm?) that has all shortcuts other than style shortcuts
3. In "user templates", make a dotx that acts as a style template, including style shortcuts
4. At each new machine, open "file locations" dialogue and direct it to these two folders on my OneDrive

[#7]

@cedi0003 

---

@cedi0003 wrote:

@Charles_Kenyon 

Thank you Charles. The "What is the relationship between a Microsoft Word document and its template?" essay was very useful and to-the-point (although the inner-workings of Word are amusingly arcane)

So if I understand correctly:

1. Styles/content/page layout are inherited once at conception, then interact no more
2. Keyboard shortcuts (and macros and some other things) exist in an ongoing relationship with the template

So, I think some of the strange behaviour I was observing was not that renaming removed shortcuts from my templates, but that it severed the connection between the template and its children.

If I need to move a template, is there a way to explicitly direct a child to where its template now lives?

My main goal is to not sever the connection while using 50 different unsynced versions of Word.

I'd like to follow best practice in regards to where I store things, but also I want to expediate very quickly setting up on new machines. I should note that I don't have admin access on these machine.

So, would you advise that I change the start-up folder to a dedicated startup folder on my OneDrive every time I sit at a new machine (and back up to avoid cloud troubles)?

Edit:

"Styles should be stored in document, not global templates"
Some of the shortcuts I want to always have available are style shortcuts. So they are excluded from global template, is that correct?

Will this be effective?

1. Make a OneDrive folder with two subfolders, startup and user templates
2. In "startup", make a dotx (dotm?) that has all shortcuts other than style shortcuts
3. In "user templates", make a dotx that acts as a style template, including style shortcuts
4. At each new machine, open "file locations" dialogue and direct it to these two folders on my OneDrive

---

Style shortcuts should be in the same file as the styles.

1. Again, styles are best stored in document templates, not global templates.
2. You can have styles in global .dotm templates that use macros to transfer the styles. See  A Global StyleSheet in Microsoft Word? 
3. In most cases, a better solution would be [Quick] Style Sets.

Re-acquainting a document with its attached template or attaching a new template.

• What happens when I attach a new template to my document? or How do I copy content and settings from...
• If a document is moved to a new computer, it will look for its templates. There is a hierarchy of locations where it will look. Which template is attached if there are multiple templates with the same name.

I expect that the OneDrive folders will work.

When you have a .dotx (or .dotm) template in your user templates folder the way you use that is to create a new document based on the template. That way, that template's resources are available to it and your styles are already in the document to be activated by any shortcuts. I have a few custom styles that I use, but mostly I use the built-in styles and modify them to suit my needs. For those built-in styles which will be available in every document, keyboard shortcuts in global templates work well. I have a global template that has keyboard shortcuts for headings 4-9 that correspond with the built-in ones for heading 1-3.

50 different computers that you are using? Seriously? If these are not your computers, I would say your cloud solution will work. I prefer to have these folders on my local computer, synced to the cloud folders, rather than referring directly to the cloud folders. But, I use a laptop and want my use of Word to be independent of having an Internet connection.

Note that File > New will not look in your user templates folder for templates unless that folder is also designated as the default save location for new templates. File New Variations in the Versions of Word (Word will look for your normal.dotm template in the user templates, though.) Templates that are stored in the Workgroup templates folder will be available in any version of Word when you use File > New.

Your active Normal.dotm template will always be the one that is in your user templates folder.

Take a look at the free Template Add-Ins on my downloads page and try some of them to get an idea of what you can accomplish with Global templates in the Startup Folder.