VBA Code

Documents can sometimes lose their connection to their template
Need to re-attach if invalid or cannot be found.

Application.organizercopy 

There is a templates collection for all the templates

Dim objTemplate As Template 
For Each objTemplate In Application.Templates 
Next objTemplate 

You cannot create a new template using the templates collection.
Templates are created by first creating a document and then saving it as a template, using SaveAs

ActiveDocument.SaveAs "newtemplate" wdFormatTemplate 

A template is attached to the templates collection whenever you:
     ● Use the Documents.Open method
     ● Use the Documents.Add method
     ● Use the AttachedTemplate property to change the template for a document (i.e. replacing the existing template)

You can use the Application.NormalTemplate property to return a template object that refers to the Normal Template

Dim objTemplate As Template 
Set objTemplate = Application.NormalTemplate 

Returns the template attached to the active document

Dim objTemplate As Template 
Set objTemplate = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate 

Creates a new document from an existing document

Documents.Add Template:="C:\Temp\Template.doc" 
              NewTemplate:=True / False 

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Name 
ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName 

Opens a template that is in the Templates collection as a document.

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.OpenAsDocument 

Dim objDocument As Document 
   Set objDocument = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.OpenAsDocument 
   If objDocument.Content.Text = vbCr Then 
      'document does not contain any text
   Else 
      'document does contain text
   End If 
   objDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges 

The following code saves a copy of the Normal.dotm template

Set objDocument = NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument 
objDocument.SaveAs FileName:="C:\Temp\Backup.dot" 
objDocument.Close SaveChanges:=wdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges 

Copying styles from a template

objDocument.CopyStylesFromTemplate 

Using the Organiser

Application.OrganizerCopy Source:="C:\Temp\Normal.dotm", _ 
                          Destination:="C:\Temp\Document.doc", _ 
                          Name:="StyleName_1", _ 
                          Object:=wdOrganizerObject.wdOrganizerObjectStyles 

VBA - Attached Templates

The AttachedTemplate property returns a Template object that represents the template attached to the specified document.
To set this property, specify either the name of the template or an expression that returns a Template object.

This attaches the template "Letter.dot" to the active document.

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate = "C:\Templates\Letter.dot" 

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Type = wdTemplateType.wdNormalTemplate 

Dim objTemplate As Template 
Set objTemplate = ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate 
Call MsgBox objTemplate.Path & Application.PathSeparator & objTemplate.Name
 

This example inserts the contents of the Spike (a built-in AutoText entry) at the beginning of document one.

Set myRange = Documents(1).Range(0, 0) 
Documents(1).AttachedTemplate.AutoTextEntries("Spike") _ 
    .Insert myRange 

VBA - Global Templates

If you need to add a template to the list of Global templates and add-ins on the "Templates and Add-ins" dialog box:

Addins.Add FileName:="C:\Temp\MyGlobalTemplate.dot", Install:=True 

Addins.Item("MyGlobalTemplate.dot").Installed = False 

VBA - Debugging Templates

Move the (dotm) file to a testing folder
Rename the file so you do not get confused
Open the template
Double click on a template file in the Startup folder, to create a dummy document
Use that as your active document