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Problems with adding office templates to the NEW menu in Teams (BUG)

Anonymous
2023-11-15T22:54:32+00:00

It's fantastic that TEAMS allows us to upload new templates so that everyone on the team / channel has access to them. However, I've come across an error and have some questions:

Issue - Error when trying to open uploaded template in teams to desktop app

Created a document template (dotx) file and added it to the NEW/Add template.

My file default open setting is DESKTOP APP

When I click on the template under the New menu, a field box appears asking me to "name" the new document.

When Word tries to open the file in the DESKTOP app, I get an error that says, "Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt,. Try one or more of the following: *Open and Repair the file, *Open the file with the Text Recovery converter (test.docx)"

Solutions (it took a bit of trial and error to figure these out):

  1. Change file open default for files to open in Browser or TEAMS. After the "Enter your new name" prompt, you will then get a prompt that says "The document you are trying to open is a template. Would you like to open and edit as a standard document? Yes No". It appears that whether you select Yes or No, a new document with the name you just entered will open based on the template.
  2. Or if you prefer to keep using the desktop app as your default, when uploading "templates" to the NEW menu / Add template, do not upload a *.dotx document. Instead, choose a regular *.docx file format. It seems like TEAMS is trying to think for you so it must somehow upload the file to a location and convert it to a *.dotx (even tho it doesn't show this on the icons). For those of us who have been using office apps for a long time, this seems counterintuitive LOL.

However, my questions are:

  1. why the error when your default is set to Desktop App?? when opening a *.dotx file that has been added to the NEW menu?
  2. If I want to CHANGE the template, where is the original stored? I tested changing the place where I uploaded to the NEW menu but the changes do not migrate which leads me to believe that sharepoint is uploading the document or template to another location...where is that so I can open the template and make changes if necessary.
  3. what was Microsoft's intention in designing this feature? Was it to skip the previous step of having to save a file as a .dotx? Perhaps if a user is trying to upload a *.*tx a prompt should appear saying this is not necessary.

It would be great if you could right click on the file in the NEW menu and see the options to 1) open a new document based on the template or 2) edit the template (but then how do you protect from users making unwanted changes who may not understand.

Thank you!

Cyndi

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Files | Save files

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-16T19:50:44+00:00

    Hi Alex,

    Thank you for you reply but as you can see from my solution suggestions I already figured out that opening in Teams or online does not repeat the error message. I'm not sure why or how Microsoft designed it to work in the background so I can't comment on format compatibility (as everything works fine when you save a template to your local drive, create new documents based on that template). My point is the logic that we have been applying for years using the desktop app does not seem to work in the teams environment. And it's strange that when you upload a document as a template to the NEW menu, the error doesn't occur opening in desktop app, the icon show it as a "document" and not a template...

    With respect to: "2) If you want to change the template, the original is stored in the location where you uploaded it to the NEW menu. However, changes made to the original template may not migrate to the templates already created from it. You may need to create a new template from the updated version."

    I shouldn't have to remove an existing template, create a new one to make a change on an existing template, This is very inefficient. If I know where Sharepoint stores the uploaded template that it created when I added it, I should be able to simply make a change to that and then all documents based on the template AFTER the change is made should have the change.

    Thank you

    Cindy

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-16T04:02:52+00:00

    Hi, Cyndi

    Good day!

    Thank you for posting to Microsoft Community. We are happy to assist you.

    According to your description, I understand that you are experiencing an error when trying to open an uploaded template in Teams to the desktop app. I will do my best to provide you with factual answers to your questions.

    1. The error you are experiencing when your default is set to Desktop App may be due to a compatibility issue between the template file format and the desktop app. Teams may be trying to convert the file to a different format, which may cause the corruption. Thus, could you please give an attempt for changing the file open default to Browser or Teams and see if there's a same issue or not.
    2. If you want to change the template, the original is stored in the location where you uploaded it to the NEW menu. However, changes made to the original template may not migrate to the templates already created from it. You may need to create a new template from the updated version.
    3. Microsoft's intention in designing this feature was to allow users to upload templates to Teams so that everyone on the team or channel has access to them. The feature was not designed to skip the step of saving a file as a .dotx. However, it may be helpful to have a prompt appear when a user tries to upload a *.*tx file format, indicating that it is not necessary.

    Regarding your suggestion to right-click on the file in the NEW menu and see the options to open a new document based on the template or edit the template, this is a great suggestion. Would you like to share your precious idea with Microsoft Teams engineering team in here - Microsoft Teams · Community.

    Thanks for your sharing and discussing. I wish you have a nice day!

    Hope you all the best!

    Sincerely,

    Alex | Microsoft Community Moderator.

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