I need some ammunition. I use a Word template to keep some of our documents consistent. The template contains standard styles along with some VBA to help facilitate the layout. Right now, only a handful of people have the template on their computers. They are allowed to make changes to the documents. The people who review the documents do not have the template. I do not agree with that decision, since the template does not contain weird code that would ruin documents, but that’s the decision that’s been made years ago.
Now the reviewers are starting to modify the documents. This causes some interesting conflicts for the people who have the template. They find style conflicts and documents attached to Normal. I want to ask my manager for permission to distribute the template to the reviewers as well. I would then hold learning sessions to teach them about how the template should be used to maintain our standards.
What I want from the crowd are reasons that everyone should use the same template. I am going to write down my own arguments and take into consideration anything posted here. I’ll be on vacation for about a week, so please don’t take my silence as abandonment. I look forward to seeing examples when I return. And links to articles about templates are good too. I intend to Google my way into convincing the manager as well.
