The Perfect SharePoint Document Template

SharePoint is a good Document Management System until you need to embed properties within a document. Once properties are embedded they won't update until you print, you manually update the fields or you add a macro to update them every time the document is opened.

SharePoint as a Document Management System also falls down when you want to update the template used by documents and have that update affect all existing documents.

The Perfect Document Template

The perfect template will have a macro that updates embedded SharePoint properties whenever a document is opened. And the template will allow me to change the header and footer for all the documents whenever I want. To do this, I need a template that I can swap out whenever I want.

Because of the default behaviour of SharePoint and Word, the template is downloaded once when you open a document. The template is never pulled again from SharePoint. See this reference. This means any updates you make to the template do not pass down to you.

The article refered to from Microsoft above discusses building an XML Expansion Pack, which is overkill for what I need. And in fact doesn't work with MOSS only WSS.

The simpler solution is to build 2 templates: a driver template and an actual template.

The Driver Template

This is the template that is bound to the Content Type and is the one that gets downloaded and never updated. What this template does is binds the actual template you want to associate with the actual document.

The Actual Template

This template contains code to dynamically build the header and footer and update all the embedded properties.

To Build This Solution

1. Define your Document Library
2. Define your Content Type
3. Create a Driver Template in the Forms directory of your Document Library
4. Create an Actual Template in the Forms directory as well
5. Bind the Driver Template to the Content Type
6. Test

I won't bother showing you how to create a Document Library or defining a Content Type, but I will show you steps 3 and 4.

Create a Driver Template

Open MS Word.
Alt + F8 will take you to macros
Create a macro called UpdateTemplate
Once you are in Visual Basic, paste this code in the code window:

Private Sub Document_New()

'temporarily unlink this file from the template
ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate = ""

'and update
UpdateTemplate

End Sub

Sub UpdateTemplate()

Dim strTemplatePath As String
Dim doc As Document

' Get the path of the template file.
strTemplatePath = "http://sharepoint-test/Docs/MyLibrary/Forms/ActualTemplate.dotm"

' Open the document template and save it to the local machine
Set doc = Application.Documents.Open(strTemplatePath, Visible:=False)
doc.SaveAs Environ("Temp") & "\ActualTemplate.dotm"
doc.Close

' Add the template as an Add-in
Application.AddIns.Add Environ("Temp") & "\ActualTemplate.dotm"

' Run the macro in the ActualTemplate template
Application.Run "UpdateThisDocument"

' Rest of the lines do not execute.
Application.AddIns.Unload True
On Error Resume Next 'In case another document is using the template
Kill Environ("Temp") & "\ActualTemplate.dotm"

ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate = strTemplatePath

End Sub

Private Sub Document_Open()

'do not do anything in the case where the solution author opens the template directly
If (InStr(1, ActiveDocument.FullName, ".dotm", vbTextCompare) = 0) Then

'temporarily unlink this file from the template
ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate = ""

'update template
UpdateTemplate

End If

End Sub

Close the VB environment and save your template.

NOTE: Make sure to save it as a .dotm (macro enabled template)

Create an Actual Template

Open MS Word.
Alt + F8 will take you to macros
Create a macro called UpdateThisDocument
Once you are in Visual Basic, paste this code in the code window:


Sub Document_New()

End Sub

Sub Document_Open()

UpdateThisDocument

End Sub

Public Sub UpdateThisDocument()

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

Margins

'Header
ClearHeaders
AddHeader

'Footer
ClearFooters
AddFooter

'Update Fields
UpdateFields

'Display Document Normally
If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
Else
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView
End If

End Sub

Private Sub Margins()

With ActiveDocument.Styles(wdStyleNormal).Font
If .NameFarEast = .NameAscii Then
.NameAscii = ""
End If
.NameFarEast = ""
End With
With ActiveDocument.PageSetup
.LineNumbering.Active = False
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(0.7)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.Gutter = InchesToPoints(0)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.4)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.PageWidth = InchesToPoints(8.5)
.PageHeight = InchesToPoints(11)
.SectionStart = wdSectionNewPage
.OddAndEvenPagesHeaderFooter = False
.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = False
.VerticalAlignment = wdAlignVerticalTop
.SuppressEndnotes = False
.MirrorMargins = False
.TwoPagesOnOne = False
.BookFoldPrinting = False
.BookFoldRevPrinting = False
.BookFoldPrintingSheets = 1
.GutterPos = wdGutterPosLeft
End With

End Sub

Private Sub ClearHeaders()
Dim hdr As HeaderFooter

For Each hdr In ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Headers
hdr.Range.Text = vbNullString
Next hdr

End Sub

Private Sub AddHeader()

'
'TODO: Add your header code here
'

End Sub

Private Sub ClearFooters()
Dim hdr As HeaderFooter

For Each hdr In ActiveDocument.Sections(1).Footers
hdr.Range.Text = vbNullString
Next hdr

End Sub

Private Sub AddFooter()

'
'TODO: Add your footer code here
'

End Sub

Private Sub UpdateFields()

With Options
.UpdateFieldsAtPrint = True
.UpdateLinksAtPrint = True
End With

If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
End If

ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View = wdNormalView

'Application.ScreenUpdating = False

If ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
End If

'Footer
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekPrimaryFooter
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Fields.Update

'Main Document
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Fields.Update

'Header
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader
Selection.WholeStory
Selection.Fields.Update

End Sub

Close the VB environment and again save your template as a .dotm file.

Bind the Driver Template to the Content Type

Go to your Document Library
Settings > Document Library Settings
Under Content Types, click on your Content Type
Click Advanced Settings
Enter the URL for the DriverTemplate.dotm (http://sharepoint-test/Docs/MyLibrary/Forms/DriverTemplate.dotm)
Click OK

Test

In the Document Library, click New and select your Content Type.
At this point your macro code in ActualTemplate.dotm should have fired. Any header or footer creation should have occurred.