Lost formatting?

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Connie Vivrett posted: <<Within our own organisation, [the
 template] works well. In this case, everyone has the
 template loaded on his or her machine. [But] when a
 document based on the template is e-mailed to someone
 outside of the company. It loses all of its formatting.>>

 Without knowing exactly what you mean by "loses all
 formatting", I suspect that the problem is very simple: If
 you're using a template with the same name as one that
 already exists on someone else's machine, the local
 template will probably be used in place of the one
 specified in the file. If the template doesn't exist on the
 other person's machine, then you'll truly lose all the
 formatting. Why? Because templates are usually stored
 _outside_ the file, and the wordpro goes to the _local_
 hard disk when it reads the line of the file that says "Use
 template A to format this text".

 If I'm right, the solution is simple: give your template a
 unique name that won't exist on the computers of users who
 receive the file by e-mail, and send it along with the
 wordpro file to the people at the other end of the e-mail
 chain. (Provide instructions on how to copy the template
 into the appropriate directory on their hard drive.)
 Another possibility: If format is that important, would an
 Adobe Acrobat file represent a better solution?

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html