How to use, modify, and create templates in Word?

A template is a master document which you can save on your computer and use to create other documents without the need to start from scratch. Templates are very useful and will save the user a lot of time. You will not need to type the same texts over again when you are creating a similar document. For example, when you open a new document in Microsoft Word, it is actually a type of template which is created every time you create a new standard document. Users are able to choose from hundreds of templates which are available through the Microsoft Office Online option. Here, you will find templates created by Microsoft or by just random people who want to share their work and save people from lots of stress which is brought about by creating a template from scratch.

Templates are useful to create quick documents from scratch that have more features and contents than a standard blank document. MS Word has a wide category of templates for you to choose from. You will find templates of different styles such as agendas, calendars, faxes, memos, blog postings, resumes, reports, and many other types of customized documents. To quickly have a professional-looking document, you have to customize the template by changing its default content. The template can be accessed every time you create a new document. In MS Word 2016, your already created templates can be accessed by clicking the Personal tab when you are on the Create new document page.

To start using a new template, use the following steps:

• Open your MS Word app. In the 2016 version, you will be directed to the templates page. In earlier versions such as 2010-2013, you will be taken to a blank document. From here, click the File tab within the ribbon and then select New.
• This will display the available templates to the right of the window. Here you will find different types of templates that you can choose from. In the Word 2010 version, you will find a panel at the center of the window with two sections: Available templates and Office.com templates. Within each section, you will see several subcategories.
• The templates that are present under the Available templates section are those that are available for you to use on your computer without downloading. The ones that are under the Office.com template section must first be downloaded from the Microsoft server, provided you have an internet

To open a template in Word 2010 to 2016, you should click on the template category that you are interested in to begin browsing or input the name of the template which you are familiar with in the search bar at the top of the window, and then click the magnifying glass to the right to start searching. You will now be presented with a list of the available templates under the category you searched for. From the available choices, you should select the template which you want to use to create your new document. In the Word 2013 version, you will be able to see the preview of the template you have chosen in a separate window. Now, click the Create button to make a new document from the template you have chosen. In the MS Word 2010, you may also want to download the template from the Microsoft server. In this case, you need to click the download button when you select the template you want to use.

How to modify a Microsoft word template?

Once the document is created, you can start making changes and editing it to your desired format. In this case, you will need to delete its default content and input your own. This is a quick and easy way to create a well-polished, professional-looking document without having to spend too much time starting from scratch.

We will be working with the Recipe template in this article as our example. Once the template is opened, you should click in and replace all of the default content with your own content such as Recipe title, Ingredients and Directions for this recipe template. You can highlight any section and then either start typing your content or click the Backspace or Delete button. After you have finished editing this template, make sure it is saved.

How to create custom templates in MS Word?

We are going to show you how to create your own custom template, using Microsoft Word 2010. Template documents make a copy of themselves every time you open them. This feature is great for documents with specific formatting. For example, we are going to be using the recipe template in this tutorial. This template lets you add specific content in certain places. You will notice that throughout the document, each section has its own style of formatting. For example, the title has specific formatting as defined by the template. You can save any document you want as a template. Click Save as and then select word Template in the Save as type drop-down menu. That’s the most basic way to create your own custom template, but some cool features have been added to Word to make templates easy to use. In order to access these features, we have to add the Developer tab to our ribbon. The ribbon is the bar at the top of a word document which contains tabs such as Home, Insert, Design, Reference, Page layout, Mailings, etc. Those tabs contain different groups such as Fonts which let you access different features and change the size and style of your characters.

Here is how to add the Developer tab:

• Click File, select Options and choose the Customize Ribbon option on the left side of the window.
• Under main tabs, the Developer tab will probably not be checked. So, go ahead and click on the box and then click OK.

Now, click on the newly added Developer tab. The special features in the Developer tab are Content controls in the Controls group. Content controls allow you to define where and what type of content will go in a particular area of a document or template.

Here is how you can add a Content control to a document:

• First, place your cursor in the document where you want the content control.
• Align your cursor to the center for the content control.
• Use the Enter, Tab, and Spacebar keys on your keyboard to help position your cursor.
• Now, go back to the Developer tab and select the icon of the content control you want to use. For example, the Rich text content control allows you to add text and specify the type of formatting you want. You can modify the content control by clicking the Properties button when you have that content control selected.

Now, you can add the title of the recipe. You can now define the style of this content control. The style refers to the font type and formatting. To choose a style for your content control, you can select a style from the drop-down menu or you can create your own. To do the latter, name your style so that you can reuse it later, then define the font. This title is going to be in Broadway, 26 font size, bold and purple. You can see a preview of your font in the sample box. Now, we can see what our content control looks like. Type “Cakes” into the control.

Now, we will add a drop-down menu underneath the title. You can determine what options are in the drop-down menu by using the Properties function. Click Add and then type in the option you want to include. We will use this menu to determine what type of food the recipe falls under. For this, our choices are dessert, main course, and salad.

The next content control we’ll add is a picture control

First, we have to change the alignment of our cursor back to left aligned. This control defines where a picture will fit on the document. Click the properties function to add a title. You can change the size of the picture by using the squares at the sides of the control. Click the icon at the center of the control to select a picture file from your computer. To make it easier to format text around the picture, go to Picture tools, click Wrap text, go down to more layout options, and then pick Square. This will allow you to place the cursor next to the picture.

Next, we will add plain text controls for our ingredients list. First, we are going to type the title of the ingredients list because that won’t change. Now we will add our plain text controls. Plain text controls are different from rich text controls because you can’t change the formatting in a plain text control. You can still define the style though, but first, we’ll add a title. Let’s call this Ingredient 1. For our style, we will call it “text for body” so that we can reuse it throughout the template. Let’s use Times New Roman and 12 font size.

The next content control we will add is the checkbox. If you click on the checkbox, it will either get checked or unchecked. We will place this next to our ingredients so that you can check off ingredients as you get them. You can fill in the rest with ingredients. In this template, we will have space for five. You can also use plain text controls to create areas for steps, using the “text for body” style that you created earlier.

Now, we will briefly show you how to add steps:

• First, add the title, then number your steps, and add a control.
• The numbering will continue automatically when you press ENTER. Once again, this template has five steps, but you can add as many as you like when you are creating your personal

Now we will add a combo box to the bottom so that we can classify this recipe. Combo boxes are similar to drop-down menus, but users can also manually add their own choices. We will add choices like Favorite, Weeknight, and Easy since these are the recipe types. Recipe type will be the title of this combo box. The choices you enter show up in the drop-down menu, but you can also manually type in your own answer.

The last control we need to discuss is the Date Picker. Add a date picker to the bottom of your recipe to show when you added this recipe. The date Picker presents a calendar, and users can choose the date from that. You can define the format which the date comes in through the properties function.

Where to find the template files on your PC?

You need to navigate to C: > User > Owners > Documents > Custom Office Templates (Owner is your username) to find the custom templates that you made. If you do not see the templates in the {User name} folder, then they should be located in the folder which is named Owner. Here is where Microsoft stores the default templates: C: > Users > {your login name} > AppData > Roaming > Microsoft > Templates. Sometimes, the AppData folder and all its subfolders are set as hidden by default.

To view this folder, use the following steps:

• Click on the File Explorer icon on the taskbar, and navigate to C: > Users > {your login name}.
• Now, click on the View menu and check the Hidden items checkbox under the Show/Hide group.
• Now, you should be able to see the AppData folder.

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We hope that this article has given you information about templates in MS Word. Share it with others who need such info.

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