Thanks Jay, let me check your suggestion; this is my code

Private Sub Document_New()
   
   
     
  'open the header

   If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial <> wdPaneNone Then
           ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Close
       End If
       If ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdNormalView Or ActiveWindow. _
           ActivePane.View.Type = wdOutlineView Then
           ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
       End If
       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekCurrentPageHeader

       'get current values for Camera, ISO, Flash, Lens and Photographer

       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("DateTaken").Range.Text = _
           Date
       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("IsoSpeed").Range.Text = _
           ActiveDocument.Variables("templateISOSpeed").Value
       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Flash").Range.Text = _
           ActiveDocument.Variables("templateFlash").Value
       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Camera").Range.Text = _
           ActiveDocument.Variables("templateCamera").Value
       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Lens").Range.Text = _
           ActiveDocument.Variables("templateLens").Value
       ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Item("Photographer").Range.Text = _
           ActiveDocument.Variables("templatePhotog").Value

   'close the header pane

       ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = wdSeekMainDocument
       ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView

       'save the template

       ActiveDocument.AttachedTemplate.Saved = TrueEnd Sub

End Sub

On the user's computer, this code stops the document with a message that the variables are not present.

Karen

Oh,

And the variables have already been added, the point is to distribute this with the variables already defined and added.  If a user changes the values then they will be saved and, from that point forward, the template will open with the user values.


Karen

 First, let me ask why you're using code at all. Why not just place
 DocVariable fields in the header of the template? They'll update as
 soon as a new document is created from the template (and yes, they
 will pick up the values of the variables in the template -- I tried
 it).

 If you must use code, that works ok for me, too, with something simple
 like this:

 Sub AutoNew()
     Dim rg As Range
     
     Set rg = ActiveDocument.Sections(1) _
         .Headers(wdHeaderFooterPrimary).Range
         
     rg.Fields.Add Range:=rg, _
         Type:=wdFieldDocVariable, Text:="test1"
         
     Set rg = Nothing
 End Sub

 If you can't spot the problem, please post your code.

 --
 Regards,
 Jay Freedman
 Microsoft Word MVP        FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
 Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
 newsgroup so all may benefit.

 On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 16:10:25 -0600, "Karen" <wonderlover@functiy.com>
 wrote:

 >Hi All,
 >
 >I have a template.  One of the features of the template was that certain
 >fields in the header would be common to documents created from that template
 >and yet different for individual users.  For instance, the header has fields
 >for camera, lens, ISO.  A particular user may routinely use a Nikon, 8.9 to
 >89 mm lens and 400 ISO so the idea was that I would save those values as
 >activedocument.variables and every time the user used the template, those
 >values would be loaded into the template.
 >
 >I distributed the template to a user with the values pre-filled in as
 >camera, lens, ISO, etc.  When the user tries to create a document from the
 >template, he gets a runtime error saying that the variables are not
 >available.  I commented out the code and the template works fine.  I only
 >have one user who is trying this template so I don't know if the problem is
 >isolated to him or not; I suspect it is a problem.
 >
 >Am I mistaken that the distributed template should have the variables
 >pre-loaded with the ordinary text?  Any ideas on how I could troubleshoot
 >this problem?  It works fine on my systems............
 >
 >Karen
 >