Changing the Document Template | SharePoint Tutorial pdf

Changing the Document Template

The document template in Shared Documents (template.doc) is really just a placeholder for your own template. SharePoint uses .doc files rather than .dot files for templates because it doesn’t actually tell Word to create a new file when you click New Document, it just downloads the template as a starting point. When the user saves the document, Word saves the file to the document library.
You change the document library template when you want to use that library for a specific type of document, such as an NDA agreement or other standard contract.
To edit the template used by a library:
1. Click Settings -> Document Library Settings and then click Advanced Settings under the General Settings heading on the left side of the page. SharePoint displays the Document Library Advanced Settings page (Figure).
2. Click the Edit Template link in the Document Template section. SharePoint opens the document template for editing.
3. Make your changes or cut/paste content from an existing template. Save and close the document when done.
Figure: Changing the library’s document template

Now when you choose New Document from the library, SharePoint uses your new template document. SharePoint uses the file type of the document template to determine which application to use when creating new documents.
To change the application from Word to Excel:
1. Create an Excel file on your desktop to use as the template. SharePoint calls these templates, but they are really just documents (not .xlt files). For consistency, name the file template.xls.
2. In the document library, click Actions®Open with Windows Explorer. SharePoint opens the library in an Explorer window.
3. Open the Forms folder and drag/drop template.xls from your desktop to the Forms folder.
4. On the Document Library Advanced Settings page for the library, change the template file name from template.doc to template.xls.
5. Click OK to make the change.
Document library templates are limited to the file types that SharePoint knows how to open for editing: Word (.doc/.docx/.docm), Excel (.xls/.xlsx/.xlsm), or PowerPoint (.ppt/.pptx/.pptm). SharePoint also provides specific library templates for some other file types, such as SharePoint Designer pages (.htm), Web Part Pages (.aspx), Picture Libraries (image types), and InfoPath Form Libraries (.xml).