How do you make changes to a Word template?

Question

So, I have a Microsoft Word template (.dotx file). I want to make some changes to it, so new documents based on it will look different.I open the template, make my changes, and hit save. Then Word prompts me for a location, because it thinks that I want to create a new Word document based on this template. I don't, so I go to Office > Save As and try to save it to the original template file...but it says I can't because I already have that file open.I thought about saving it to a new file, then just switching file names around to get it back in the location of the original template, but I worry that documents based on this template will lose their association with the template the were based on.There has to be a better way, and I suspect I'm missing something extremely obvious here.

Answer 1

You're correct in the method you're using to try to edit the Template and you will have to name it something different in order to save the edited Template. The documents that were created based on the Template won't be affected because the Template only affects how the documents look when they are first opened. Once the documents are saved as a Word document, they are completely separate files from the Template and have no connection of any kind to the Template.