Iris,
You might try what Jennifer and Mona have done, forgo the template and supply a PSH file instead! You can supply it sans the images or use placeholder images (it might be a pain to go that route, but at least they wouldn't see the "file not found" message in place of the image!). Those seem to work out fine. Heck, I basically used my old shows or a show I created specifically to hold my "styles" from which I'd copy the slide or slides needed. I had given up on the templates early on because, to me, they were kind of a pain to deal with (maybe I was just lazy!
).
When I provided some folk with something I'd done (at least lately), I've been supplying the psh file (sans images) for pre-v4 and styles for v4. WRT the psh file, if I created it with v4 (as has lately been the case), I found that pre-V4 proshow would open the file after giving a warning message. I just made sure that I didn't include any features that weren't in pre-v4 (or, pre-v3.5 ... blurs and adjustment layers as appropriate, if I remember right).
With the appropriate approach, creating styles in Gold just means (as in a carousel), that a slightly different mindset is needed. I found that, sometimes ... such as with carousels, it was best to take a GOLD-like route since it gave me more flexibility in the timing (slide times as well as transitions, for timing the slides' effects to the music) ... dealing with the keyframes can be a real pain when a lot of layers are involved ... which meant more discipline (vs finesse) in designing the "style!"). Gads, I've gotta do some conversions on my carousels! Styles would make them easier to work with (start, middle, and end styles)!
WRT what Tina said, I agreed with her perspective but wasn't sure what her appreciation of styles was (so it was a plug to upgrade, esp if it was free ... Tina, I wouldn't upgrade yet then if it's gonna cost you. You might consider the next release or two tho ... some of those bugs and "features" are probably going to be improved and/or fixed... or something).
Dale