A complete study of the link between growth conditions and cobalt nanodots morphology is performed on a Au(7 8 8) vicinal template using STM images at different temperatures. Once a good long-range order is established for the nanostructure superlattice, we elucidate how the substrate temperature during deposition influence the local order of the dots array. This work allows a full control of the local order of the nanostructure assembly and thus is an important step for the one who wants to perform physical properties measurements of nano-objects. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.