Word Document Templates

You can use all your existing Word document templates with eaDocX. So if you already have templates which define what your document layout and styles will be, then eaDocX can generate EA content which looks good.

Word Template vs eaDocX Profile

We’re often asked for the differences between the Word document template, and the eaDocX Profile. Are they the same thing?

• The Word document template is a file, with a file type of ‘.dotx’ or ‘dotm’ (if it has enabled macros). It’s what Word uses when you create a new document. It may have some contents already added, placeholders where you can add your own content, and definitions of paragraph styles. ever since you’ve been using Word, you’ve always been using a Word document template, even if you didn’t realize.
• An eaDocX Profile is the definition of how to format EA content as it’s added to your document. It can be saved as an XML file, but it’s normally hidden inside your Word document.

You can save any Word document as a Word Document Template, just using ‘Save as’. So this means that, if you have an eaDocX Word document, you can save it as a template, and the eaDocX Profile will be saved with the Word Template. So, each time you create a new eaDocX document using that Word Template, it will automatically have an eaDocX Profile. The author of the document can then edit that eaDocX Profile as they wish.

This can save a great deal of work for users.

The (DEFAULT) Template

Each installation of MS Word uses a template by default: for UK/US English installations this is ‘Normal.dotx’. Selecting (DEFAULT) will create a document using this Word Template.

Locations of Templates

By default, MS Word puts its document templates into a location of its choosing. On a typical Windows machine, this is in somewhere like c:/users/(my name)/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Templates.

• Note that to view these files, you’ll need to tell Windows to let you see hidden files & folders, as the ‘AppData’ folder is hidden.

If you want to save your own Word Document Templates, Word will save them in this location by default, and eaDocX will look there to find them again.

If you don’t have access to the default location, or you just want to keep your Word Document Templates somewhere else, then you can change where eaDocX will look for templates by changing the eaDocX Application Setting.