When a document is opened from SharePoint it will attempt to use the global template of the local machine. On the desktop, you could solve such issues by storing macros in the global template ( normal.dotm, by default) and this will work in SharePoint as well. You’ll be unable to collaboratively review, edit or manage documents using these extensions. Forgiving those, there is one absolutely no-go issue for me: collaboration features are completely unavailable in these documents. Most of the issues are relatively minor and stem from the fact that these macro extensions are prone to security warnings and are often flagged by email and malware protection systems. While these can be used as document library templates, there are issues. Macro Enabled Documentsįor security and visibility reasons, any Word or Excel document that contains macros will be saved in the *.docm or *.xlsm formats. You can then return to the “Advanced Settings” page at any time to edit or replace the document template. In any case, once you configure a custom template (or, if Allow management of content types? is set to “Yes”, multiple custom templates), pressing the “New Document” button will automatically open a copy of that template for use. You can also use macro-enabled Word and Excel documents (*.docm or *.xlsm). As of Office 2007, this will most likely be “template” extension (*.dotx for Word, *.xltx for Excel and *.potx for Powerpoint) or a normal document (*.docx, *.xlsx or *.pptx). You can change this to a custom template in the Document Library Settings, “Advanced Settings” page (below).Īny standard Microsoft Office document can be used as a template. By default the “New Document” button on a library will allow you to upload a file or create a new blank document based on default templates (you can set the default type type – Word, Excel, etc. In SharePoint, a library can hold, with a few restrictions, any type of document. This article will provide an overview of those issues and a solution that you may find useful.
However there are some wrinkles if you’d like to manage macro-enabled documents. SharePoint libraries are a great way to manage template-driven documents.