How to fix customized 'table design / table styles' and 'quick tables / quick parts' for ALL users and ALL documents

Your storage location needs to be in your template. It should certainly NOT be Building Blocks.dotx.

The template can and should be stored and used as a global template saving it in each user's Word Startup Folder. By itself, that will take care of the Quick Tables and other Building Blocks.

• Where Can Building Blocks be Stored.

It will not deal with Table Styles, though. Something extra is needed to transfer those to all documents. You cannot use the Organizer to transfer Table Styles.

They will be stored in the template and in any document based on the template containing them. Getting them into other documents will require macros.

See: Copy table style to another template or document

An alternative would be to recreate your documents using that template as a base.

As Charles said, you can make sure that Quick Tables (= predefined example tables with formatting and possibly also content included) are available to all documents in Word.

However, table styles are different. They live in documents and templates, just like other styles in Word. In most cases, you don't want styles to be copied into all documents (new and old). Table styles do not include content, only (certain aspects of) formatting.

Dear @KC

Good day to you and thanks for your post in Microsoft Q&A. I'm sorry for the inconvenience you've encountered.

I sincerely apology that my tips cannot help you. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

This is all my investigation about your issue. But it seems like all the tips are not working, and that's all I can help with. As for your problem, I recommend you contact your IT's organization to create a ticket in Microsoft Admin center - it is a live support that has experience engineer that can help you directly.

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience. I look forward to your information and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me - I’ll be happy to assist you. Wishing you a wonderful day.

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Dear @KC

Good day to you and thanks for your post in Microsoft Q&A. I'm sorry for the inconvenience you've encountered.

Based on Microsoft documentation and community guidance, here's how to properly create, save, and share these customizations so they're available in the template for all office staff. This ensures the template acts as a self-contained package. I'll outline the steps clearly that you can consider, assuming you're using Word 2016 or later (adjust slightly for older versions).

1. Recreate and Save Customizations in a New Template
   Start fresh to ensure everything is saved correctly in the template file itself, not your personal defaults.
   1. Open a Blank Document and Create/Save Custom Table Styles:
      1. Insert a table (Insert > Table > Insert Table).
      2. Select the table, go to the Table Design tab (appears when table is selected).
      3. In the Table Styles group, click the More arrow (down arrow) > New Table Style (at the bottom).
      4. Customize your style (e.g., borders, shading, fonts) in the Create New Table Style dialog.
      5. Name it (e.g., "MyCustomTableStyle"), set options like "Apply formatting to" (e.g., Whole table), and click OK.
      6. Repeat for additional styles. These styles are now part of the current document and will be saved with it as a template.
   2. Create and Save Quick Parts/Quick Tables:
      1. Insert or create your table (or other content) in the document.
      2. Select the entire table (or content).
      3. Go to Insert > Quick Parts > Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.
      4. In the Create New Building Block dialog:
         1. Name it (e.g., "MyQuickTable").
         2. Set Gallery to "Tables" (for Quick Tables) or "Quick Parts" (general).
         3. Set Category to "General" or create a custom one.
         4. Important: In the Save in dropdown, select "BuildingBlocks.dotx" (default for sharing) or your current document's name if it's already saved as a template. Avoid "Normal.dotm" as it's personal and won't share.
         5. Add a description if needed, then click OK.
      5. Repeat for other Quick Parts or tables.
      6. To verify: Insert > Quick Parts > Building Blocks Organizer. Sort by Gallery or Name to see your items.
   3. Save the Document as a Template:
      1. Go to File > Save As.
      2. Choose a location (e.g., a shared network drive or your desktop for testing).
      3. Set Save as type to "Word Template (.dotx)" (or ".dotm" if it includes macros). Name it (e.g., "CompanyTableTemplate.dotx").
      4. Click Save. This embeds the custom table styles and Quick Parts/Building Blocks in the template file.
2. Distribute the Template to Office Staff
   Simply sending the .dotx file via email or file share isn't enough - users must install and use it correctly for the customizations to appear.
   1. Instruct Users to Install the Template:
   2. Send the .dotx file to staff.
   3. Have them copy it to their personal Templates folder:
      1. Go to File > Options > Save > Note the "Default personal templates location" (usually %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates; if blank, set it to a folder like C:\Users[Username]\Documents\Custom Office Templates).
         1. Paste the .dotx file there.
   4. For company-wide access without per-user copying:
      1. Place the template on a shared network drive.
      2. In Word, go to File > Options > Advanced > General > File Locations > Set "Workgroup templates" to the shared path (e.g., \server\shared\templates). This makes it available to all via File > New.
   5. How Users Access and Use the Customizations:
   6. To create a new document from the template: File > New > Personal (or Shared/Workgroup if set) > Select your template. This opens a new .docx based on it, with customs available.
   7. Table Styles: Insert a table > Table Design tab > Styles gallery shows your customs.
   8. Quick Parts/Quick Tables: Insert > Quick Parts > Your items appear in the gallery or Building Blocks Organizer.
   9. Important: Do not open the .dotx directly (it opens as a document without full template behavior). Always use New from Template.
3. Make It Global (Optional, for Always-Available Access) If you want customs available in every new document (not just template-based ones):
   1. Save the template as .dotm.
   2. Place it in the Word Startup folder: File > Options > Advanced > General > File Locations > Startup (usually %appdata%\Microsoft\Word\Startup).
   3. Copy to each user's Startup folder (or use a login script for IT-managed setups).
   4. This loads it as a global add-in, making styles and Quick Parts always visible.

Once again, I sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience. I look forward to your information and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me - I’ll be happy to assist you. Wishing you a wonderful day.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.