Word 2010 : Automatically populate Backstage tab from Folder

Question

We're about to move from Office 2000 to 2010 and are looking at how best to provide our templates to users.

What I want to do is replace the Office.com templates with our own.

Looking at the documentation and Technet blogs I see that we can either create or amend the tabs in the Backstage view, but I am trying to find out if we can do this in a relatively hands-off manner.

Our templates are stored on a network server, with subfolders grouping similar templates. Whilst we could point Workgroup templates at the root folder and get the My Templates dialog, this feels like a step back.

1) Can we create a backstage tab (or replace the New tab)

2) Can we set this tab up to automatically display the templates that are in the folder and use the subfolders to sort the templates? Such that if a new template is added to a folder we do not need to roll out a new version of the backstage

Answer 1

Of course the Office 2010 File New Backstage is not very appropriate for a corporate environment. To disable the "Templates from Office.com" you can use a Windows Group Policy (the option is named "Disable template downloads from the client and from Office.com").

However, you'll find in the File New Backstage still the entry for "Sample Templates". These templates cannot be uninstalled. Find detailed information on this page on the Word MVPS site.

Your question 1: Yes, you can create a new Backstage Tab, or hide the Word File New tab (you'll need both) throug an add-in.

Your question 2: If you want to mimic the Pre-Office 2007 FileNew dialogs, you must also recurr to an add-in which does exactly what you need. For example, read the files from a network share and display them in the Backstage view. However, the File New replacements I've developed in the last years did recurr to a configuration file, because you have the possbility to display additional information for the users, e.g. about the use of the template, or about differences (between "Legal Opinion small" and "Legal Opinion large" etc.). Administration of a config file is also "hands-on" without problems.

Answer 2

At least in Word there is one other option: On the Quick access toolbar you can put another "New from Template" icon (I don't know what it is exactly called anymore, but it is there in the selection of icon from Microsoft) which opens up straight the Pop up window with all your templates without going trough the ridiculous long winded process via the Backstage.