Using Word Processing Templates in Word

Have you ever wanted to create a template for your document? If so, you are not alone. Many people today want to be able to create professional looking documents by using templates instead of having to learn how to write a document from scratch. Templates are also referred to as guides or “style sheets” and are usually found in many word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

By creating a template you can have a new document that is ready to go before even opening it. Let’s say you are writing a new document and need a way to attach it to an e-mail. You could make a new template for this purpose that includes your name, address, company and your contact information. Then when you save the document to your e-mail, you can simply click the attachment icon and the “new document” will appear on the screen. You can then put your personal or business information within the body of the text and your links or files in the footer of the page.

If you want to create your own template, all you have to do is go to the “Templates” section in Word and click “New”. In the new window, you will see a list of templates that are available to you. You can choose from text, images, clip arts and others. When you have finished creating your new document, you will see a dialog box on the far right of the screen prompting you to name your document.

After you have completed naming your document, you will see two more windows offering you options about what you want to do with your template. The first option is to replace the text within the document with a preformatted list. For example, if you wanted a list of your contacts, you would simply select the “Contact” tab and click “New”. Then you would fill in your contact information as you normally would and then click “OK”. Another option would be to replace the text with a default template. When you click the “default” tab, a window will popup containing the default formatting for your selected document.

These templates can be changed by selecting the “modify” option from the Edit menu. The modify template dialog box is located at the bottom right corner of the screen next to the “Content” selection. You can change the following default formatting, which includes bold and italics, width, line spacing, color, image formatting and the text formatting, which include bold, italics and inserting a picture.

Finally, if you prefer not to have to use the Word Processing templates, you can download blank templates from the Internet. Many websites offer free templates that you can use in your documents. You simply download the template of your choice, fill in the blanks and print your document.