Although the article templates are typically stored in view-only and read-only folders, it is possible to specify their names when placing on a page a library object with 'create' or 'link' tool, and link them - in that case, their format and geometry is replaced with the object's one, and the template is practically destroyed.

A workaround is to ise a special naming convention for templates, which is different of the usual names the users give to stories: this will protect templates against accidental linking.