Understanding the Organizer

Word provides the ability to work with templates, which in turn allow you to associate styles, macros, and AutoText entries with a particular document. In versions of Word prior to Word 2007, templates can also be used to modify the appearance of toolbars, buttons, and menus.

As you can tell, templates are very powerful and they provide a great deal of flexibility to Word. Sometimes, however, it can be a real pain to get a good "overall" view of what you have available in a particular template or even in a document.

This is where the Organizer comes into play. Word provides the Organizer (a deceptively simple name) to provide a degree of control over what customization elements are included in a template or a document. While you don't use the Organizer to create any of these elements, you can use it to copy them from one template or document to another, or to delete them completely.

Exactly what you can do with the Organizer depends on the version of Word you are using. In versions up through Word 2003, the Organizer can be used to manage styles, toolbars, AutoText, and macros. In Word 2007 it can only be used to manage styles and macros.

There are several different ways you can start the Organizer. The following methods will work just fine in versions of Word up through Word 2003:

• Choose Style from the Format menu. This displays the Style dialog box, on which you should click the Organizer button.
• Choose Macro from the Tools menu, and then Macros from the resulting submenu. This displays the Macros dialog box. Click on the Organizer button.
• Choose Templates and Add-ins from the Tools menu. This displays the Templates and Add-ins dialog box, on which you should click the Organizer button.

If you are using Word 2007 you can start the Organizer by pressing Alt+F8 to display the Macros dialog box. You can click the Organizer button from within the dialog box.