Save time with templates Create your own templates Say you often use a certain invoice whose basic content stays the same except for certain details that

Save time with templates

Create your own templates

Say you often use a certain invoice whose basic content stays the same except for certain details that change each time.

In effect, you’re using your original document as a template, although you may never have turned it into one.

Why not do so? You’ll have one clear master to work from, and you won’t have to undo outdated content when you’re preparing a current invoice.


Advantages of creating a template

Sticking with the example of an invoice document, here are some things you’d gain by turning the document into a template.

• You wouldn’t have to search through various document versions; changes would all be stored in the template.

• Since a template opens up a copy of itself, you wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally saving over one of your previous invoices.




• You could alter the template’s content so that it contained only that information you wanted for every single invoice. This way, you would not always have to delete outdated information, and that would save you time and bother.




• By taking out the obsolete content, you’d reduce the chance of saving and accidentally sending out an invoice with unwanted information.

• The template would always be in the same location in Word, with all your other templates.


Prepare the content for the template

Part of the process of creating a template is leaving or creating just the information in it that you want.

This is the content that you’d want each new document that was based on the template to start with.

Much of what you put in the template depends on your own preferences and the particulars of the content.



First, open the document you want to use to create the template (in this case, the invoice document), or open a blank document.

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Leave in the content that’s bound to stay the same for a while.

Insert a Date & Time command for the invoice’s date area. This will automatically put the current date into a new document.

Here are typical things you might do afterward:



First, open the document you want to use to create the template (in this case, the invoice document), or open a blank document.

3 Leave text placeholder areas for information that will change per invoice: company name and address the invoice goes to.

Here are typical things you might do afterward:

4 Leave empty the areas that will change for every invoice: work done, number of hours, and total cost.


Save the file as a template

Since a template is its own type of file, to save a document as a template you’ll select the file type called Word Template.

Here are the steps.

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Click the Microsoft Office Button, point to Save As, and click Word Template.

In the Save As dialog box, click Trusted Templates as the place in which to save the template.

Name the template, and click Save. 3



Putting the template in Trusted Templates is important.

Because macros can contain malicious code, Word is on the lookout against opening documents with macros.

If your computer security settings are at the recommended level, Word will open any template file, but it will disable any macros it contains.

This tells Word that it’s safe to open even if the template should contain macros or other code.



Putting the template in Trusted Templates is important.

This tells Word that it’s safe to open even if the template should contain macros or other code.

For templates that are in the Trusted Templates folder, however, Word doesn’t disable the macros. It assumes the files are safe, so be sure the files you store there are from a trusted source.


Create a document based on the template

Another advantage of saving a template in the Trusted Templates folder is that Word then makes it very easy to find.

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In the New Document window, click My templates.

Click the template you want.

Make sure that Document is selected on the lower right, under Create New, and then click OK.


Edit the template

What if a vital part of the template information became outdated; for example, your company logo changes?

Here’s how you’d open it up and edit it.

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Click the Microsoft Office Button , and click Open.

Click the Trusted Templates folder.

Select the template, and click Open.


Edit the template

What if a vital part of the template information became outdated, for example, your company logo changes?

Here’s how you’d open it up and edit it.

Protecting your templates

If you have created a template that other people in your company plan to use, consider protecting the template’s contents against edits to the template that you may not want.

Documents

Save time with templates Create your own templates Say you often use a certain invoice whose basic content stays the same except for certain details that