September 2003

Announcement - the new training schedule is out for both teachers and clerical!

Creating New Templates in Microsoft Word

By Teresa Lightle- Technology Coordinator                                Printable Version (pdf)

There are many letters, forms and other documents that can be created and used year after year. Back to school letters, rules and permission slips, often can be used with very few if any changes. If a document is saved as a template, information can be entered, printed or saved as another name without spoiling the original document. Forms are another example of template use. To create a document as a template, open or create a new document in Microsoft Word (templates can be created in any Office application.)

Once the generic form has been created select File from the menu bar, Choose Save As. At the bottom of the Save As Dialogue box, Name the file you are creating, then use the drop down arrow next to the Save as type text box to select Document template. Select Document Template.

Notice as soon as you choose Document Template, the Save In option redirects the location to which the document is stored. Microsoft Word's default is to save all templates to the templates folder. This option can be changed, but it must be done after you change the Save As type to a Document Template.

Click on the Save button to save the document.

To open the document template you just created:

In Office 97-2000- Choose File in the menu bar, then select New. The Templates dialogue will appear, make sure the General tab is selected, this is where your template will appear.

In Office XP - In the task pane choose General templates:

Notice that the Permission Slip file appears with a solid yellow band at the top of the icon which designates that it is a template.

The real power of the template appears when a user opens the template, adds their information to modify it, and then goes to save it. The user can access only the save Save As dialogue box. They will be unable to save over your original template, thus preserving the template in its original format.

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For Questions or Comments about this newsletter please contact: tlightle@bcoe.org

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