>>I would just put the templates on a network shared folder with most rights removed
>I think that is the answer. I guess if I'd stated the problem clearly enough at the beginning, I could have saved everyone a lot of time :-) There is still the occasional problem with corruption but I think that would go away if access was restricted.

Yes
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>> You could build the template documents into the exe
>I was working on that but am having trouble getting them out! Also, is there a way to add extra categories in the Other tab of the project? it's hard to find them when comingled with everthing else. Perhaps a table would work best after all....

None of the above. Just folder with files is best, IMO. I believe applications must give the user all power possible. Those powers should be restricted from some users, but the application design must include those features, regardless.

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>>You could copy a template to a user-specific folder
>I like that idea, especially if I could remove Save As from the Word menu somehow. There is a specific naming convention for these documents that the application needs to control.

There are several hits on google about disabling save as for MS word automation.