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Attaching the template simply makes the styles
defined in the template available for use in the
document.
As you surmised, the styles are also defined in the
document, and those styles are the only ones in
effect.
Attaching the template does not automatically update
the styles in the document.
To update the document styles with the template
styles, you must check the "Automatically update
document styles" check box in the Templates and
Add-ins dialog box.
I think of this as "flushing" the template
definitions through the document. I usually clear
the check box after doing this, because it can play
havoc with heading numbering.
When the document styles are updated, every styled
paragraph should show the new look. Often, you'll
find that a mix of authors has resulted in a mix of
styled and manually applied formatting.
You can save some rework time by selecting the whole
content and executing two commands: