Creating a template from an existing file

So I have a very long composition (seven pages of SATB with organ, although, in order to change the typeface on the marginal notation, I had to get rid of the combination of two staves into one and now I get flagged for soprano and tenor parts that are low out of range, because they're actually alto and bass parts; but I digress). I want to use it as the basis for a template for the remaining files in this work. If basically I delete everything from the file, will the template remember the changes I've made to styles, such as the typefaces for titles, lyrics, etc.? And if I copy something from a file I created from scratch (so it's using the default settings for styles) to the template described above, will it retain its style formatting from the defaults or will it apply the styles in the template (I'm thinking especially in regard to lyrics)?

Thanks, all.