Managing Users’ Options with System Policies

Working with System Policy Templates

A system policy represents a single option in an application. Each system policy corresponds to one or more Windows registry keys. A system policy template associates the option with the registry keys that the option affects.

When you create a system policy file, you base your file on one or more policy templates. The Office 2000 Resource Kit includes the following policy templates, which list the options you can control for each application

Most policies in the system policy templates correspond to options that users can set in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) of each Office application. Some policies do not correspond to settings that users can select; these are organized by application or under the general Office heading.

The policies in the template are organized into a hierarchy to make them easier to find. In general, they are organized to correspond to the user interface. For example, items usually found in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) are listed under Tools | Options in the template.

In some cases, however, the templates do not exactly match the user interface. Some Office settings appear in the Options dialog box (Tools menu) for each component, but the corresponding policies are listed in the Office9.adm template. For example, the Provide feedback with sound option is common to Word, Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Access, so it is stored in the Office9.adm template rather than in the templates of the individual applications. Similarly, each component has a Web Options button on the General tab in the Options dialog box (Tools menu), so you can set options specifically for using Office with the Web. You set a policy for these options in the Office9.adm template under Web Options category rather than in the template for each application.

Note   The System Policy Editor can also work with three Windows template files (Common.adm, Windows.adm, and Winnt.adm). These files do not contain Office policies, but the Windows policies they contain may be useful in managing a workgroup. For more information, see the Windows NT Server Resource Kit or the Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit.

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See also

Before you create a new policy, you must specify which policy templates you want to use. For more information about adding a policy template, see How to Set System Policies for Your Organization.

The system policy templates contain individual system policies organized by category. For detailed information about the contents of each template, see Office 2000 System Policy Reference.