Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Determining the Template Attached to a Document.

Determining the Template Attached to a Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 21, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

Every document has a template associated with it. Templates control things like which styles and macros are available to the document. A document can have only one template associated with it at a time, and you can change that template at any time you desire.

If you want to find out which template is attached to a document, you can do so by displaying the Developer tab of the ribbon and then clicking on the Document Template tool. Word displays the Templates and Add-ins dialog box. (See Figure 1.) The field at the top of the dialog box indicates the name of the template associated with your document.

Figure 1. The Templates and Add-ins dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10689) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Determining the Template Attached to a Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is five minus 3?

2023-01-24 04:34:15

Barry

Thank you to both Tomek and Andrew. Both relies are very useful.
Regards
Barry

2023-01-23 11:07:20

Andrew

In a macro, ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Name or ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.FullName gives this information.

Andy.

2023-01-22 11:00:36

Tomek

I think it may happen if the open document is a template itself.
This will happen if you save your fila as a template and you continue editing it, or if you open the file that is a template using Open from within Word.
Opening the template from file explorer crates a new document based on that template.
HTH

2023-01-21 08:44:03

Barry

Hi. I tried using this Tip ( Finding the Template Attached to a Document).
In the dialog box the area for the template name is empty and greyed out for some files but not others. Why would that happen if all documents have an associated template? All of the documents are created on the same Word version (2019).
Any suggestions to resolve this greatly appreciated.
Regards
Beepee

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