There doesn't seem to be a switch to hide the extension - is there are VBA
tweak?

Also, do you think the template might "remember" that I might not have had
"hide file extensions" checked when I originally created it?  If so, would
seem edit of template might work - but tedious.

Dim fName As String
Dim grep As Integer

fName = ActiveDocument.Name
grep = Instr(fName, ".")
fName = Left(fName, grep - 1)

--
Roy Walter
Brook House Limited
http://www.brookhouse.co.uk

Another solution could be this one.

Sub Auto_Open()
    Dim DocName As String
    Dim BMRange_DocName As Range
    DocName = ActiveDocument.Name ' get the name of the active document
    Set BMRange_DocName = ActiveDocument.Bookmarks("DocName").Range ' go to the
bookmark
    BMRange_DocName.Text = Left(DocName, Len(DocName) - 4) ' overwrite it with
the filename
    ActiveDocument.Bookmarks.Add "DocName", BMRange_DocName ' restores the
bookmark
End Sub

You need to add a bookmark to your document, bookmarkname DocName.
This code will find your bookmark, update it with to documentname (without
extension),
and makes sure the bookmark is restored.

Kind regards,
Bert