Change Word's Default Template Location

Sometimes we wish that we could just make changes in the registry to make feature changes in applications. For Word, sometimes we want to be able to change things such as the Normal.dot default location, or our workgroup templates location without having to do it manually on every computer we're responsible for. Well, help has arrived!

You can change the default normal.dot location by doing the following:

1. Go to Start > Run > type regedit and hit enter.
2. In the left side browser/folder tree, expand to following the path:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\\Common\General
3. Once you click on General, you'll see stuff on the right side.
4. Right-click on the right side of the window and choose New > String value
5. Give it the name UserTemplates and hit enter
6. Now, doubleclick the new UserTemplates entry you just made
7. For the value, enter the path you want to use for your user templates (and Normal.dot) location
8. Click OK and close the registry editor
9. Restart Word and the setting should have take place

Note for , substitute the version that corresponds with your install: 9.0 for Office 2000, 10.0 for Office 2002/XP, 11.0 for Office 2003, and 12.0 for Office 2007.

Now, if you want to change the workgroup templates location, you can do the same process, except add a string in the same place called SharedTemplates, and give it the value of the path you want to use.

Voila! Who knows what other hidden gems lie in the registry, just waiting to be exposed...