Create a template.http://replace.me

Once you create a template, you can use it over and over. Remember that while you open a template to start a project, you save the project as another file type, such as the basic. The template file stays the same, unless or until you want to change it more on that later. Fortunately for us, Microsoft provides many hundreds of templates for all of its programs. For this exercise, select Business. Word displays template search results on-screen, plus a comprehensive list of categories in a scrolling panel on the right.

Scroll down the page or choose a different category, then select a template that fits your current project. Notice the photos, graphics, and main information, such as hours, are already created in the template. You can change the colors, font, photos, logo, and anything else on this template.

Before you make any changes, go ahead and save this template with a new filename. Then navigate to the applicable folder and give the template a new name. Now open it again. Note that it is not in the folder you specified. Select the one you just saved from the list and open it. Change the sections on the new template that will be on every brochure, such as the logo, or contact information. It will save in the same location. Next, fill in all the other information and save it—this time, as a document, so you can print it out or share it with others.

Custom templates can be as simple or complex as needed. You can also create interactive templates to load on the Intranet, so others can fill in the blanks to print their own envelopes and letterhead, for instance.

First, create a document—design and format it, add graphics and photos. Create two columns: The left is 4. These measurements are only suggestions. Adjust as necessary for your project and the images and graphics you choose. Repeat this process for a subtitle. Create some graphic boxes for the title dark teal and the subtitle light teal. Insert an applicable photo in both columns.

Adding images gives you an opportunity to eyeball image sizes and column widths and adjust them as needed. Enter the schedule and agenda in column one. Use Century Gothic 14 in black for the body text and Century Gothic 18 in dark teal for the headers. Enter the time and place plus the conference hosts in column two, with the same fonts and colors for the body text and headers. Before you exit, also save this document as a template. Next conference, the template is ready to get you started.

Once you have some custom templates in your Custom Office Templates folder, when you open Word and select New , Word provides a new category on the backstage menu called Personal. Click this category to see and open your saved templates. Some templates use interactive controls for user input. For example, imagine that once a month, the branch managers, assistant managers, and loan originators of a large banking institution have a meeting at one of the 12 branches.

Rather than have that person retype the data in a regular template, you can create a template where options can be chosen from a list. Insert a check box. Insert a building block gallery control. Set or change the properties for content controls. Add instructional text to a template. Add protection to a template. Add protection to parts of a template. Assign a password to a template. Building blocks are reusable pieces of content or other document parts that are stored in galleries to be accessed and reused at any time.

You can also save building blocks and distribute them with templates. For example, you may create a report template that provides your template users with two cover letter types to choose from when they create their own report based on your template.

Make your templates flexible by adding and configuring content controls, such as rich text controls, pictures, drop-down lists, or date pickers. For example, you might create a template that includes a drop-down list. If you allow editing to the drop-down list, other people can change the list options to meet their needs.

Note: If content controls are not available, you may have opened a document or a template that was created in an earlier version of Word. After you convert the document or template, save it. In the list, select the Developer check box, and then click OK. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode , and then insert the controls that you want.

In a rich text content control, users can format text as bold or italic, and they can type multiple paragraphs. If you want to limit what users add, insert the plain text content control.

On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Picture Control. In a combo box, users can select from a list of choices that you provide or they can type in their own information.

In a drop-down list, users can only select from the list of choices. Select the content control, and then on the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties. Repeat this step until all of the choices are in the drop-down list. You can create rich text content controls for each version of the boilerplate text, and then you can use a building block gallery control as the container for the rich text content controls.

On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties. Click the Gallery and the Category for the building blocks that you want to make available in the building block control. Select the content control, and click Properties in the Controls group. In the Content Control Properties dialog box, choose whether the content control can be deleted or edited when someone uses your template.

To keep several content controls or even a few paragraphs of text together, select the controls or the text, and then click Group in the Controls group. For example, perhaps you have a three-paragraph disclaimer. If you use the Group command to group the three paragraphs, the three-paragraph disclaimer cannot be edited and can be deleted only as a group.

Instructional text can enhance the usability of the template that you create. You can change the default instructional text in content controls. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Design Mode to turn off the design feature and save the instructional text.

You can add protection to individual content controls in a template to help prevent someone from deleting or editing a particular content control or group of controls, or you can help protect all of the template content with a password.

On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Group , and then click Group again. In the Content Control Properties dialog box, under Locking , do any of the following:. Select the Content control cannot be deleted check box, which allows the content of the control to be edited but the control itself cannot be deleted from the template or a document that is based on the template. Select the Contents cannot be edited check box, which allows you to delete the control but does not allow you to edit the content in the control.

Use this setting when you want to protect text if it is included. For example, if you often include a disclaimer, you can help ensure that the text stays the same, and you can delete the disclaimer for documents that don't require it.

To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, do the following:.