Essential SharePoint

Changing the Library Template

The key advantage of creating new documents from the library is that SharePoint provides a template. The default template (template.doc) is really just a placeholder for your own template. SharePoint uses .doc files rather than .dot files for templates because it doesn't actually tell Word to create a new file when you select New Document, but just downloads the template as a sort of starting point.

To change the template used by a library:

1. Create the new template in Word as a .doc file. If you are starting with a Word template (.dot), just create a new file based on that .dot file.

2. Navigate to the library and choose Explorer View.

3. Open the Forms folder (which is hidden in Other Views).

4. Drag and drop or copy the new template to the Forms folder.

5. Choose Modify columns and settings → Change general settings.

6. Enter the name of the new template in the Templates section and choose OK.

Now when you choose New Document from the library, SharePoint uses your new template document rather than template.doc.

Document library templates are limited to the file types that SharePoint can open for editing: Word (.doc), Excel (.xls), or PowerPoint (.ppt). SharePoint also provides specific library templates for some other file types, such as FrontPage web pages (.html), Web Part pages (.aspx), Picture Libraries (image types), and InfoPath Form Libraries (.xml).