We would like to be able to collaborate on documents and ensure that the same template is found and used by Word on whatever machine is being used to edit it. We also would like updates to the template to be synchronized among all the collaborators.
We thought we could do that by storing the templates on a SharePoint folder (sync'ed using OneDrive) and specify the URL to that folder. The problem is that when we use an URL to specify the template we wish to attach (like this):
https://xyzcorp.sharepoint.com/Shared%20Documents/Company%20Templates/XYZtemplate.dotx
Word changes it to something like this:
D:\OneDrive\XYZCORP\XYZTeam Site - Documents\Company Templates\XYZtemplate.dotx
i.e., it converts it into the locally mapped sync'ing folder for OneDrive/SharePoint and that's what it stores in the document file. That works fine on that machine, but...
On a colleague's machine where SharePoint is sync'd, for example, to her C: drive, or a different path on her D: drive, it won't work.
An alternate solution I've considered is to create a reserved location on every collaborator's machine for storing templates, e.g.,
C:\XYZ Templates
Although not strictly required, it's safe to assume every machine will have a C: drive. The problem is that this folder must be manually maintained. When a template is updated, it has to be manually propagated to all the machines where the documents may be edited.
Is there a simpler or more straightforward solution?