We have been using the backstage view of Office 2010 to deploy custom templates, as described in the TechNet article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178976(v=office.14).aspx 

We recently upgraded to Office 2013 and have not been successful in getting our templates to show up in the backstage view.  We have tried creating the spotlight registry keys under the \Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Spotlight but this was also unsuccessful. 

Has anyone been able to deploy custom templates using the 2007/10 spotlight approach outlined in that TechNet article?

Thanks

Dan

Hi Dan,

I am able to do so. Could you tell in which steps you failed?

I have also got trouble when use the XML configuration sample, and I fixed my problem by modify the featured templates data from

        <o:featuredtemplates startdate="2011-03-01" enddate="2013-03-01">

to

        <o:featuredtemplates startdate="2013-03-01" enddate="2015-03-01">

After that, everything worked like before.

Hi All,

I have the same problem and even when i change startdate and enddate values, I haven't any templates displayed on Word.

In the registry  i have "Content" entry.

The two templates are well imported in the registry. In "FeaturedTemplates\1" i have "0000001" and "0000002".

But nothing in Word 2013 "Nous n'avons pas trouv de modle dans cet emplacement".

Do you understand what's happen ?

Regards,

Emmanuel.

Hi Emmanuel,

Now there is an alternate method in Office 2013:

1. Put your template in a network share.

2. Modify the Workgroup templates folder setting (Word Options - Advanced - File Location - Workgroup templates) to point to that network share, and then the template will be visible in a new CUSTOM tab of the template (new document) page.

Is it possible to change the templates that are shown by default when a user clicks 'File', 'New'?

my organization would like the default template to have a corporate header and footer by default on new docs.

If the user then click's 'File', 'New' we'd like them to see the option of 2 or 3 other corporate templates at the top of the list and then the rest of the defaults as well as a straight blank page.

The default template is the normal template; it should not have headers or footers.

However, you can set Word up to use a different template for new documents and upon startup. Download the examples on my Add-Ins section. Specifically, look at the Letterhead Add-Ins and the Easy New Document Template package.

Is it possible to change the templates that are shown by default when a user clicks 'File', 'New'?

my organization would like the default template to have a corporate header and footer by default on new docs.

If the user then click's 'File', 'New' we'd like them to see the option of 2 or 3 other corporate templates at the top of the list and then the rest of the defaults as well as a straight blank page.

Yes, it is possible, by using either Group Policy or registry settings.

For a full list of the settings, check the Templates and backgrounds settings section in the following article:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178992(v=office.15).aspx

I realize this is an older post, but thought someone here might have an answer. I am looking to do the same thing as the original poster - make a template set available to our users in their Word gallery. I have completed the steps in the TechNet article as well and have gotten it to work with local or network locations, but we need the XML file to point to a SharePoint URL where the templates are contained in a library/folder. We can't get Word to recognize this location.

I realize that I could point the Workgroup templates location to a SharePoint library that syncs locally, but it appears to require users have a "Contribute" (write) level access to the SP library, resulting in a postback mess. At this point the XML option looks like our best bet - unless someone has another idea? We are running SP 2013 and Office 2013/365. Thanks in advance!

Hi Katie,

When you browse to a SharePoint library, click the Library tab, in the Connect & Export group, click Open with Explorer, this will open the library in the Windows Explorer, there you can find the file path to the library, and the templates.

Thank you for your help Max,

I see a template in the Word 2013 gallery but when I click on it, msg is "Sorry, we couldn't open {SP library path}" <OK> then "Sorry, we couldn't find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?" 

I can use the XML file to populate the Word gallery with local templates (such as from my C drive), but not from SharePoint. In the xml file, I have tried pointing it at the SP library location and the library location plus template name. No luck so far.

• Edited by Katie Mills 14 hours 25 minutes ago

Thank you for your help Max,

I see a template in the Word 2013 gallery but when I click on it, msg is "Sorry, we couldn't open {SP library path}" <OK> then "Sorry, we couldn't find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?" 

I can use the XML file to populate the Word gallery with local templates (such as from my C drive), but not from SharePoint. In the xml file, I have tried pointing it at the SP library location and the library location plus template name. No luck so far.

• Edited by Katie Mills Tuesday, March 31, 2015 5:00 PM

Thank you for your help Max,

I see a template in the Word 2013 gallery but when I click on it, msg is "Sorry, we couldn't open {SP library path}" <OK> then "Sorry, we couldn't find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?" 

I can use the XML file to populate the Word gallery with local templates (such as from my C drive), but not from SharePoint. In the xml file, I have tried pointing it at the SP library location and the library location plus template name. No luck so far.

• Edited by Katie Mills Tuesday, March 31, 2015 5:00 PM

Thank you for your help Max,

I see a template in the Word 2013 gallery but when I click on it, msg is "Sorry, we couldn't open {SP library path}" <OK> then "Sorry, we couldn't find your file. Is it possible it was moved, renamed or deleted?" 

I can use the XML file to populate the Word gallery with local templates (such as from my C drive), but not from SharePoint. In the xml file, I have tried pointing it at the SP library location and the library location plus template name. No luck so far.

Hi Katie,

I just got a chance to verify the method to save the template on a SharePoint server is working. Please make sure the permissions are set correctly.

Thank you Max,

Can you please specify how the permissions should be set to allow Word 2013 to access SP 2013 via the XML file? Is it enough to simply be logged into SharePoint with Contribute rights to the library or is there more that needs to be done?

• Edited by Katie Mills 12 hours 33 minutes ago

Thank you Max,

Can you please specify how the permissions should be set to allow Word 2013 to access SP 2013 via the XML file? Is it enough to simply be logged into SharePoint with Contribute rights to the library or is there more that needs to be done?

Hi Katie,

I believe Contribute permissions are enough for this case.

Have a look at the following solution, see if it works for your situation:
http://zasharepoint.blogspot.com/2014/04/sorry-we-couldnt-find-your-file-is-it.html

More hints to troubleshoot this issue:

• Have you tested this issue on another machine?
• Is proxy used?
• Does the SharePoint environment has complex permission settings (e.g. the inheriting permissions are broken, or cross domain environment, etc.)?