Document vs. Template Solutions
When you design a solution around a Word document or Excel workbook, you must decide the best way to make that document available to your users.
Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects for the following applications: Excel 2007 and Excel 2010; Word 2007 and Word 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.
In some situations, you might want to give a copy of a document to each user. In this case, create your solution by using an Excel or Word document project.
In other situations you might want to make a template available on a server, so that each user can open the template and save a local copy as a document. In this case, create your solution by using an Excel or Word template project.
Comparison
The following table outlines the differences between documents and templates.
Documents |
Templates |
|---|---|
Users can open and modify a document, unless it is set to be read-only. Any saved changes are kept in the original. |
Users can open a template to create a local copy as a new document. They cannot modify the original unless they are given special permissions. |
When opened, the document raises the Open event. |
When opened, the template raises the New event. |
See Also
Concepts
Other Resources
Deployment Overview (Office Development in Visual Studio)