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The attached template of a Word document: the path to a .dotx or .dotm that the file keeps, and what it says about where it was made

Last updated: 28 October 2026

The template's name and the other properties are in Word document properties, and links to other files in general are in custom XML, embedded objects and template paths. What a template from a previous job brings with it besides the path, such as logos and style names, is in reusing an old template. This page is about the attached template itself: what the file records, what Word does with it, and how to change it.

Two records of a template

The file format standard, ISO/IEC 29500-1 (1st edition), as quoted on Microsoft's Open XML SDK pages, defines both.

The quotations are from the SDK pages Template, AttachedTemplate and LinkStyles. The AttachedTemplate page adds that the element "contains the ID of the relationship which references the associated template", and that if it is left out, "applications should use their default template in its place". The name and the link are kept in different parts of the file, so removing one does not by itself remove the other.

What the path can say

A path names the folders on the way to the template, and folders are often named after people, teams and clients. Microsoft's page Change the Normal template (Normal.dotm) gives the Normal template's folder on Windows as C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, and its page Create a template says Word on a Mac saves templates in /Users/username/Library/Group Containers/UBF8T346G9.Office/User Content/Templates unless you choose another location. A template kept in a folder like these has the user name of whoever saved it in its path. A template on a network share has the server and share names instead, and a folder such as \\server\Clients\client name\Templates names the client.

The path does not prove where a document came from: it says where the template was when it was attached. It can still tell a reader the name of a colleague, the name of an internal server, or that the document began in another client's folder.

A .dotm: macros in the template, not in the document

Microsoft's page Load or unload a template or add-in program says that "Templates can store styles, AutoText entries, AutoCorrect entries, macros, toolbars, custom menu settings, and shortcut keys". A template saved as .dotm can hold macros. A .docx attached to one does not contain those macros: it contains the path of the template, which ends in .dotm. To the reader, that path says that the document was made with a macro template, what it is called and where it was kept, and a name such as ClientLetters.dotm can say as much as the folder does.

The standard says the template is attached "if it is accessible". On a computer that can reach the path, such as a colleague's on the same network, the template is attached again. Templates can store macros, AutoText entries and more, as quoted above, and Microsoft's macro reference shows code reaching the AutoText entries of a document's attached template (Document.AttachedTemplate). Whether and when a template's macros run then depends on the recipient's Word and its macro settings, which the pages cited here do not describe. On a computer that cannot reach the path, the document has the path but not the template; we found no Microsoft page that describes what Word shows in that case, so this page does not describe it.

Updating styles from the template

The w:linkStyles setting asks Word to copy the template's styles into the document each time it is opened. The standard adds: "If the attached template cannot be located or is not a valid file, then this setting should be silently ignored." For a recipient who can reach the same path, a colleague or someone on a shared server, opening the document can change its styles to match the template as it is then. The standard does not say what the setting does when there is no attached template at all: the AttachedTemplate page says applications should then "use their default template in its place", and the LinkStyles page says the setting should be ignored when the template cannot be located. So if the attached template is taken out, turn the setting off too. If the formatting must stay as you sent it, turn the setting off before you send.

What Document Inspector covers

Microsoft's page Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks lists "Template name" among what the Document Properties and Personal Information inspector removes in Word. The list does not mention the attached template's path or the update-styles setting. After running it, check word/_rels/settings.xml.rels in a copy (below) rather than assume either way.

Change the attached template in Word

1. Work on a copy made for sending.
2. Read the path in a copy of the file (below), or with the macro example under these steps.
3. If the path names a person, a client or a server, attach a template kept outside your user folder, for example in C:\Templates, the folder Microsoft's macro reference uses in its example. A folder under C:\Users\user name puts the user name back in the path. In Word for Windows, the dialog that Microsoft's page Load or unload a template or add-in program opens (File › Options › Add-Ins, Word Add-ins in the Manage list, Go) is the dialog Microsoft describes for templates; that page describes only the global templates on its Templates tab, so check the result in a copy.
4. Turn off the setting that updates the document's styles from the template unless you want it (the standard calls it "Automatically Update Styles From Document Template").
5. Save, and check a copy of the file again as below.

Microsoft's macro reference also shows how to read and change it. Its page Document.AttachedTemplate property (Word) has an example that "displays the name and path of the template attached to the active document", and one that "attaches the template" given by its path. Global templates and add-ins that you load under File › Options › Add-Ins are a setting of your copy of Word; Microsoft's page on loading them says such a template "remains loaded for the current Word session only". This page is about the template the document itself records.

Check a copy of the file

1. Make a copy of the .docx, rename it to .zip and unzip it.
2. Open word/_rels/settings.xml.rels, if there is one. A relationship whose type ends in attachedTemplate has the path in its Target.
3. Open word/settings.xml and search for attachedTemplate and linkStyles.
4. Open docProps/app.xml and read Template.
5. Finding nothing this way shows only that these searches found nothing, not that the file holds nothing else.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads the .docx in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, one file at a time, it counts the attached template under links to other files and can show the start of its path among the first few samples, among the other kinds of hidden data it supports. The free version removes the document properties, the template's name with them, and removes comments and accepts tracked changes; the attached template's path stays. ScrubDrop Pro removes links to other files, and with them the attached template and its path. The update-styles setting holds no path and stays. As above, the standard does not say what it does with no attached template, so turn the setting off in Word before you run ScrubDrop if the formatting must stay as it is.

ScrubDrop does not open macro-enabled files (.docm, .dotm): it asks you to save them as .docx first. A .docx that only names a .dotm as its template is an ordinary .docx and is cleaned as above. The result is read again with separate parsers, and a file that does not pass is not offered.

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 28 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.