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<b>IT Basics</b> - Microsoft Word templates and styles. By Simon Hurst

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19th Apr 2006
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In the first part of his series on getting Word to do the work for you, Simon Hurst explained features that help automate content. Now he moves on to the features that automate formatting and presentation ' templates and styles.

Templates
Whether you know it or not, you use a template every time you create a new Word document. A Word template is basically a Word document containing the formatting and content that is to be the basis for a new document. Templates hold the Page, Setup options and can also have particular styles, AutoText entries and even toolbars and macros attached to them.In addition, templates can include standard content or layout for certain types of documents.

If you do not choose a particular template then your document will be based on the default template named 'Normal'. This is where Word stores all your default settings. Incidentally, it's a good idea to make sure that the 'Normal' template is backed up regularly ' particularly if you are a keen user of AutoText. In fact you should make sure that all your templates are backed up.

Word templates have the three letter extension DOT rather than the document extension of DOC and they live in one of two possible template locations ' the User templates folder, or the Workgroup templates folder. To see where the templates are stored on your own system, look at Tools-Options and click on the File locations tab. You should see the two folder locations listed about half way down the list of file types. Generally, as the names suggest, you would use the User templates location for your own templates ' particularly 'Normal.dot'. The Workgroup templates location could be a network folder that holds templates that are shared across your organisation.

For example, you could create a letter template that is set up to work with your organisation's headed paper. This would be stored in the Workgroup templates folder. All users would have their Workgroup templates folder set to this location. Whenever a user chooses File-New they will see a list of available templates that includes all templates in both the User and Workgroup templates folders. If they are producing a letter, then they select the letter template and will start off with document margins, headers and footers and maybe other layout and even content features already set up.

To create a new template, format a document as you need and include any standard content. Then use File-Save As and set the Save as Type to Document Template. This will change the Save in location to your User templates folder. If you need to share the template, then navigate to your Workgroup templates folder instead. Give the template a sensible name and save it. If you close your template, then use File-New you should see your template in the list.

Styles
The three most important formatting automation functions in Word are styles, styles and styles. Almost all Word users can benefit from learning to use styles effectively. Even if you just use Word to produce simple letters, investing a couple of hours in understanding Word styles will be worthwhile.
Styles can be used to control character formatting, but are most commonly used for whole paragraphs. A style stores all the formatting that you can apply to a paragraph. You can apply the style with a single click or keyboard shortcut. Some of the benefits of using styles are as follows:

  • Time saving ' you can apply multiple format options in a single action and if you need to change the format for a style you can update all paragraphs of that style in one go. You can also set a style to be applied automatically to the next paragraph;
  • Consistency ' because you don't have to remember the individual options, using styles avoids inconsistent formatting. By attaching styles to shared templates you can effectively set a house style for Word formatting.
  • Numbering ' working with numbered lists in Word is a frequent cause of problems and computer monitors flying through third floor windows. Using outline numbering with styles can reliably automate virtually any Word numbering requirement.
  • Table of contents ' styles can be used to generate automatic tables of contents for longer documents.

    The way Word styles work has remained similar through recent versions of Word, but the introduction of task panes in Word XP made styles more visible and hopefully easier to use. However beware of the Keep track of formatting option in the edit tab of Tools-Options. When turned on, this turns any formatting you apply into a new style. This does make it easier to apply the same formatting elsewhere in your document but it can also result in a confusingly long list of styles. Generally it's better to explicitly set up the styles you want to be used, and to leave the Keep track of formatting option turned off.

    As an example of how effective and easy styles can be to use, let's assume that you often include headings in your letters such as:
    Re: 2006 tax return

    Our headings are formatted as follows: Bold; left-justified; font style: Arial; font size: 14 point.

    We might also want to apply some more advanced formatting options, such as setting a specific amount of space above and below the heading, and using the Keep with next option to ensure out heading is never stranded on its own at the bottom of the page.

    Rather than applying these formats individually every time we want to use a heading, we can set up a single heading formatted as we need it. With the Word cursor in our heading we can then use Format-Style-New or Format-Styles and Formatting-New style (depending on Word version), to create a style based on the formatting we have used. All we need to do is to give the style a name ' maybe 'letter heading' and, if we want to make the style available for all future documents, select the Add to template option.

    Whenever we need to format a heading now, all we need to do is to position the cursor in the heading and choose the 'letter heading' style from the style box, or the Styles and formatting task pane. We could make it even easier by allocating a keyboard shortcut to the style.

    Do take the time to explore styles and get to know and love them. Learning to use styles properly can make a major difference to how efficiently Word works for you and your organisation.

    About the author
    Simon Hurst is a former chairman of the ICAEW IT Faculty and runs The Knowledge Base, a consultancy dedicated to helping practitioners make effective use of technology. He is also the author of AccountingWEB's Office ProductivITy Kit and '100 Microsoft Office Time-saving Tips'. For more information, visit the The Knowledge Base website. AccountingWEB members can also access his back catalogue and IT Clinic online email support via the Office ProductivITy service.

    For more tips on Microsoft Word, see some of IT Zone's previous Expert Guides on the subject:

  • IT Basics: Introducing Word AutoText and AutoCorrect
  • Microsoft's Word & Outlook secrets
  • Word FAQs answered by ProductivITy Kit author
  • Setting up a schedule of figures in Word
    Microsoft Word tips from The Knowledge Base
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