# MS word opens regular documents as templates--make it stop

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-opens-regular-documents-as-templates-make-it-stop/782124>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 14, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-opens-regular-documents-as-templates-make-it-stop/782124 "2017-03-14T01:00:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-opens-regular-documents-as-templates-make-it-stop/782124/1 "2017-03-14T01:00:03Z")

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I’ve been having trouble with some but not all MS Word documents recently–they have the extension .docx, but open as templates. Sometimes doing a save and replace with the same filename clears up the problem, but not every time. What’s going on and how do I make it stop?

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**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-opens-regular-documents-as-templates-make-it-stop/782124/2 "2017-03-14T01:22:13Z")

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I don’t know if this is the same issue, but a problem discussed here:

> **[Can I separate a word Doc (docx) from the template used to create it (dotx)?](https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/2650-can-i-separate-word-doc-docx-template.html)**
>
> Can I separate a word Doc (docx) from the template used to create it (dotx)? Word

said

> [@](#):
>
> … the dotx is on a network location with incredibly slow performance. When I open the docx, I get a progress dialog box stating “opening \<template.dotx\>”…

Is that what’s happening? If so, the suggested workaround was:

> [@](#):
>
> 1. Copy the template from your network to your local machine, then re-attach the document to the local version. (I’m currently on a Mac, but the process would be the same: Save the template to the ‘My templates’ (or similar) folder. Then go through Tools, Templates and Add-ins, Attach (or whatever the corresponding commands are in your version of Word) and attach to the local version.
> 2. Attach the document to an existing template on your local machine, e.g. the Normal template. Make sure not to check the ‘Automatically update document styles’ box though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-opens-regular-documents-as-templates-make-it-stop/782124/3 "2017-03-14T03:39:07Z")

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Sounds like not quite the same problem, but I will give this a try. Thank you.