How to create templates in Word. Save a Word document as a template Add building blocks to a template

Whether you're using a built-in template or updating one of your own, Word's built-in tools can help you modify the templates to suit your needs. To update your template, open the file, make the necessary changes, and save it.

IN Microsoft Word You can create a template by saving the document as a DOTX file, a DOT file, or a DOTM file (a DOTM file allows you to allow macros in the file).

Select items File > Open.

Double-click an element This computer. (In Word 2013, double-click Computer.)

Go to folder Custom Office templates, which is located in the folder Documentation.

Click the template and click the button Open.

Make any necessary changes, then save and close the template.

Adding Content Controls to a Template

Make your templates flexible by adding and customizing content controls such as rich text, picture, drop-down, or date picker.

For example, you can create a template that contains a drop-down list. If you allow editing of a drop-down list, other people can change its settings to suit their needs.

Note: If content controls are not available, you may be opening a document or template created using more early version Word. To use content controls, you must convert your document to Word 2013 format by clicking file > details > convert and then click the button OK

To be able to add content controls, display the tab Developer.

Select teams File > Options > Customize Ribbon.

In the dropdown list Customize your feed select Main Tabs.

Select the checkbox for the tab in the list Developer and press the button OK.

Adding Content Controls

On the tab Developer in Group Controls click the button Design mode

Add a text control where users can enter text

Add a Picture Control

Add a combo box or drop-down list

Note: If you select the checkbox, users will not be able to change the selected items.

Inserting a Date Picker Control

Adding a checkbox

Add a building block collection control

Set or change properties of content controls

Let's take the example of a three-paragraph Disclaimer document. Once you group these paragraphs using the Group command, the corresponding text cannot be edited and can only be deleted as a group.

Add explanatory text to a template

Template protection

Protecting Template Elements

Assigning a password for a template

On the tab Review in Group Protect select team Restrict Editing.

In chapter Enabling protection click the button Yes, enable protection.

Enter your password in the field New Password(not necessary), and then confirm it.

Important:

Use strong passwords that contain upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. In addition, these elements in the password must be interspersed. Example of a strong password: Y6dh!et5. An example of a weak password: House27. The password must contain at least 8 characters. The longer the password, the more secure it is.

About templates

File and press the button Create

Using a Blank Template

Open the tab File and select Create.

Select an option new document and then click the button Create.

Make any necessary changes to margin and page sizes, page orientation, styles, and other formatting options.

Click tab File and then select Save as.

File type select Word Template and press the button Save.

Close the template.

Create a template from an existing template or document

Open the tab File and press the button Create.

In Group Available templates select From an existing document.

Click a template or document similar to the one you want to create and click Create.

Change margin and page sizes, page orientation, styles, and other formatting options accordingly.

You can also add content controls, such as date pickers, explanatory text, and graphics, which must be present in all new documents based on this template.

Click tab File and then select Save as.

Select the file name for the new template from the list File type select Word Template and press the button Save.

Close the template.

Adding building blocks to a template

Building blocks are reusable content elements or other parts of a document that are stored in collections and available for reuse at any time. Building blocks can also be stored and distributed using templates.

For example, you can create a report template that contains two types of cover letters that users can select when creating a report based on the template.

Opening a template.

In field Save to select a template name.

Share the template.

Adding Content Controls to a Template

You can add additional flexibility to your template by adding and customizing content controls, such as rich text fields, pictures, drop-down lists, or date pickers.

For example, you might add a colleague with a template that contains a drop-down list, but your colleagues need to use a different set of options in the drop-down list of the document they distribute based on your template. Since you enabled editing in the dropdown when you added a content control to the template, your colleague can easily and quickly change the template to suit their needs.

Note: If content controls are not available, you may be opening a document or template that was created using an earlier version of Word. To use content controls, convert your document to a Word 2010 file format by clicking the File, click the item Intelligence, select a command Convert and press the button OK. After converting your document or template, save it.

To add content controls, you must display the Developer tab.

Showing the Developer Tab

On the tab Developer in Group Controls click the button Design mode and add the necessary controls.

Add a text control where users can enter text

In a rich text content control, users can make text bold or italic, or enter multiple paragraphs of text. To limit the user experience, insert a plain text content control.

Add a Picture Control

Insert a combo box or drop-down list

In the combo box, users can select one of the items you suggest or enter their own. In the drop-down list, users can only select one of the available items.

Inserting a Date Picker Control

Inserting a checkbox

Add a building block collection control

Building block controls are used when you want to allow users to select a specific block of text.

For example, building block controls are useful when you need to customize a contract template and add different standard text depending on the specific requirements of the contract. For each version of standard text, you can create rich text content controls, and then use the building block collection control as a container for rich text content controls.

Building block controls can also be used in forms.

Set or change properties of content controls

Select the content control and click the button Properties in Group Controls.

In the dialog box, specify whether the content control can be deleted or modified by another user using the template.

To work with multiple content controls or multiple paragraphs of text as a single object, select those controls or text and then select Group in Group Controls.

For example, let's say there is a three-paragraph disclaimer. After grouping these three paragraphs with the command Group the disclaimer cannot be changed and can only be deleted as a group.

Add explanatory text to a template

To make the template easier to use, you can add explanatory text. You can change the default explanatory text in a content control.

Here's how you can set the default explanatory text for template users.

Template protection

You can add protection to individual content controls in a template to prevent certain content controls or groups of controls from being deleted or edited. You can also protect the entire template content with a password.

Protecting Template Elements

Select the content control whose changes you want to restrict.

To select multiple controls, CTRL-click them.

On the tab Developer in Group Controls click the button Group, and then press the button again Group

On the tab Developer in Group Controls click the button Properties.

In the dialog box Content Control Properties In chapter Lock do the following.

• Check the box

  Check the box Content cannot be edited

  These options can be used to protect text if it is included in a template. For example, if disclaimers are added frequently, protection ensures that the text remains unchanged while allowing disclaimers to be removed from documents where they are not needed.

Assigning a password for a template

Here's how you can assign a password to a document, allowing only users who know it to remove protection.

Open the template to which you want to assign a password.

On the tab Review in Group Protect select team Restrict Editing.

In chapter Enabling protection click the button Yes, enable protection.

Enter your password in the field New password (optional), and then confirm it.

Important: If you choose not to use a password, any user can change the editing restrictions.

The password must be at least 8 characters long.

It is very important to remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot reset it. Keep the passwords you write down in a safe place without overriding the data they help protect.

About templates

A template is a type of document that, when opened, creates a copy of it.

For example, a business plan is a common document, often created in Word. Instead of creating a business plan structure from the beginning, you can use a template with standard page layout, fonts, margins, and styles. All you have to do is open the template and fill out the document with the appropriate text and data. When you save as a .docx or .docm file, the document is saved separately from the template on which it is based.

You can store recommended sections or required text in your template, as well as content controls such as a standard drop-down list or a custom logo. You can add protection to a section of the template, or apply a password to the template, which protects the contents of the template from changes.

Word templates for most types of documents can be found on Office.com. If you are connected to the Internet, open the tab File and press the button Create, and then select the template category you want. You can also create your own templates.

Using a Blank Template

Create a template from an existing document

Creating a new template based on an existing one

Adding Content Controls

Note: You can also add content controls to documents.

Adding explanatory text to a template

Instructions for populating content controls added to the template make working with the document much easier. These instructions are replaced by content when you use the template.

Saving and distributing building blocks using templates

Building blocks are reusable content elements or other parts of a document that are stored in collections and available for reuse at any time. Building blocks can also be stored and distributed using templates. For example, you can create a report template that contains two types of cover letters that users can select when creating a report based on the template.

Save and close a template designed to meet specific needs and to which you want to add building blocks for users to select from the template.

Opening a template.

Keep the template open to which you want to add building blocks.

Create the building blocks that you want to provide to your template users.

When entering information in the dialog box Creating a New Building Block in field Save to select a template name.

Share the template.

When you upload or otherwise share a template, the building blocks saved with the template will be available in the specified collections.

Template protection

You can add protection to individual content controls in a template to prevent certain content controls or groups of controls from being deleted or edited. You can also protect the entire template content with a password.

Protecting Template Elements

Open the template to which you want to add protection.

Select the content controls or group of controls that you want to prevent changes to.

On the tab Developer in Group Controls click the button Properties.

In the dialog box Content Control Properties In chapter Lock do the following.

• Check the box Content control cannot be deleted. This will allow you to change the contents of the control, but the control itself cannot be removed from the template or the document created with it.

  Check the box Content cannot be edited. This will allow you to delete the control, but will not allow you to edit the content in the control.

  These options can be used to protect text if it is included in a template. For example, if disclaimers are added frequently, protection ensures that the text remains unchanged while allowing disclaimers to be removed from documents where they are not needed.

Protect all template contents

Open the template in which you want to prevent changes.

On the tab Developer in Group Protect click the button Protect document and select Restrict formatting and editing.

In the task area Document protection under the heading Editing restrictions check the box Allow only the specified editing method for a document.

In the list of editing restrictions, select the desired restrictions.

To set additional restrictions settings, such as specifying who has read and edit permissions on the document, click Limit permission.

Restriction options include setting an expiration date for the document and allowing copying of its contents.

In chapter

Templates are regular documents but contain recommended sections or required text, as well as content controls such as a standard drop-down list or a custom logo. You can add protection to a section of the template, or you can apply a password to the template, which protects the contents of the template from changes.

Word templates for most document types can be found at Microsoft Office Online. If you are connected to the Internet, press Microsoft Office button, select Create and then select the template category you want. You can also create custom templates.

Due to numerous requests from readers, today we will make a design, or rather a website layout in Photoshop. Of course, if you have never encountered this, it is quite difficult to do; many questions arise that I will try to answer today. As it turns out, there is not much material on this subject on the Internet. There are a lot of designers, but no one tells you how to make a website layout. Maybe I was just looking poorly? :)

Continuation

In general, let's do it already.

To begin with, I have prepared a simple layout, which we will fully analyze with you. Here's what it looks like:

As you can see, the template is not complicated; naturally, it is a blog template, which we will later layout in HTML. Well, for now we’ll just draw. Well, now let's go.

Software

The first thing you need is Photoshop. If you don't have it, buy it :-)

Document creation and dimensions

To create a new document in Photoshop, you need to go to “File” and click “Create”, then a window will appear in which you need to set the appropriate dimensions.

The dimensions depend on how wide your future site will be. For example, you decided that the finished site will have a width of 1000 px, therefore the document size needs to be made a little larger, somewhere around 1200 px. This is done primarily for convenience, so that your layout looks the same as in the browser.

Regarding the height, the size is set based on the theme of the template. But it is advisable to do more, I think 4000 px is enough. This is done so that all the elements fit in later. Because I somehow made the height small, and then I had to transfer everything to a new document.

In my case, the site will have a width of 1200px. So I made a document 1300 px wide and 4000 px high. Leave the rest of the settings as they are.

Website template background

After we have created the document, the first thing to do is create the background for the site. It doesn’t matter what color or picture it is, just do it. In my case it's just a white background. Select the Fill tool in the color picker and select White color, then just click on the background.

The width of the future site is 1200 px

Now we need to set the size of the future site so that it looks the same as it will look in the browser. We will do this using a ruler. If it is not active for you, you need to go to “View” and check the box next to “Ruler”. Then it should appear in your viewing window.

And here's what she looks like:

Select our layer, you just need to click on it once:

Now we need to place a ruler in the center of our document, or rather, find the center. To do this, move the cursor over the ruler on it, hold down the left mouse button and draw the line onto our document. Pull approximately to the middle, the ruler will find the center itself.

After we have found the center, we need to place our site with a width of 1200 px in the center of a document that has a size of 1300 px. To do this, select the “Rectangular Area” tool, set the Style on top to Specified size, where we write the following values: width - 1200px, height 400px. Next, simply click on our white background and we will have a selected area of ​​the width we need.

Now we place our selected area in the center with the mouse, it will find the center itself. Then you need to pull out 2 more rulers and place them on both sides of the selected area. In this way we indicate the boundaries of our future site, which will have a width of 1200 px. This ruler will also make it easier to adjust design elements. If you don’t understand, do the same as in the figure below.

We will continue to use the ruler in the future, since we cannot do without it here; it allows us to set everything evenly.

Now we have almost completely prepared our document. We found out the middle, and also identified the exact size beyond which you do not need to climb. Now let's move on to the most interesting part, namely creating a website design (layout).

Creating a website design or layout

Important!

Always create groups for layers and give them names. Because in the future you will definitely get confused!

Groups

We create a group and call it “Hider” (Hat) and in it we create a “Top Menu” group, since we will start with it. In the group, create a new layer and call it “background”. This will be the background of our top menu.

This is what you should get:

Top Menu

Again we pull out the ruler and set it as in the figure:

Select the “Rectangular Marquee” tool and select along the horizontal ruler:

In the color palette, enter this color #0dbfe5, select the Fill tool and fill the selected area, then you need to deselect the selection in the “Selection” tab, click on “Deselect”:

Click on the “Horizontal Text” tool. In the top panel, select the “Segoe UI” font. Now click on the blue menu background and write the name of our pages. Then you can move the text wherever you need.

Now we create separators between pages. And we’ll give it a slight depression effect. Create a new layer and select the Line tool. Then hold down Shift and draw a vertical line across the entire blue background of our menu.

Double-click on the layer with the shape and a window with the layer style will open. Check the box next to “Color overlay” and add this color #0aaacc there.

Go to the “Shadow” item and set the following parameters:

This is what you should get:

After that, we simply copy the layer with our line and place it after each word. Here's what I got:

Social bookmarking icons

Here in the menu only on the right side we will add bookmark icons. In my case, this is , but you can also install regular downloaded icons. You can download it here.

First, using a ruler, you need to set the height of our icons so that they are even. Here's what to do:

Then we create a group, call it “Social Bookmarks”, create a new layer in it. Now click on the “Custom Shape” tool and select the desired shape:

Move the cursor to the place where the icon will be, hold down Shift (so that the icon appears straight) and stretch it to the desired size. And we repeat the same process with the following figures. In the end, this is what you should get:

Let's move on to the logo. Again, create a separate group for the logo and add it to a new layer.

Logo

Go to this site and download the font. Select the “Horizontal Text” tool. We look for the name of our font Olivier in the font field. Click on the place where the logo will be located and write the name in English, because this font does not support Cyrillic. This is what you should get:

Create a “Bottom Menu” group and a new layer.

Bottom menu (Main)

We set the rulers as in the figure:

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and make a selection. Then fill the selected area with this color #303030. This is what you should get:

Deselect the selection in the “Selection” tab. Now go to the Filters - Noise tab and select Add Noise. Then we set the following values:

Adding lines. They are done in the same way as in the top menu, only the color of the line itself is changed. I think you can handle it, and this should look like this:

Now we move on to the panel with information that will tell the user where he is on the site.

As usual, in the “Hider” group, create an “Info Panel” group with a new layer.

Information panel

First, add stripes from the ruler as in the figure below:

Select the “Rectangular Marquee” tool and select the area directly below the menu, and fill it with black color #000000

Deselect the selection, select “Horizontal Text”, change the font size to 48 pt and the color #a4a4a4. We write “Latest Entries”. This is what you should end up with:

Content

Let's move on to marking the middle of our future site. We need to use a ruler to mark where the post blocks and the sitebar block (Right column) will be located.

Immediately you need to create 2 separate groups:

• Tags— we will add text to this group with the size of our columns.
• Content— a group where our entire site will be located.

In the group, we create content for the “Left” group, which will contain our blocks with posts.

Select the “rectangular area” tool, give it the “set size” style and set the width to 800px and height to 100px. Here's the result:

Add lines from the ruler as in the figure and deselect:

In the “Content” group we create a group called “Right” (Sitebar). We will mark the place for the right column of the site.

Again we take the “rectangular area”, but in the style of the area we set a slightly smaller size with a width of 350px and the height will remain the same at 100px. And then we do everything as in the figure:

Now we know exactly where the blocks with posts and the sitebar will be. And everything will be smooth.

Remember we created a label group? There, just create a layer with block sizes labeled, like mine:

These marks will be very helpful during layout. You won't need to remember the sizes.

Blocks with records

Let's start with blocks with records; in this case they are made very simply.

In the “Left” group, create a “block” subgroup and a new layer.

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool again. In the style we set the dimensions to 800 x 300. We adjust it to the lines. Then fill it with this color #d9d9d9. This is our miniature.

In the same group, add a label using text like I have in the picture above.

Now let's add a title to the post. Take “Horizontal Text” and set the size to 35 pt and the color to black. Add right below the thumbnail:

Adding information to the post. Set the font size to 14 pt and the color closer to gray:

And the description for the post:

Now add some text and see what we got:

To separate the records at least a little, let's create a simple separator from circles.

Create a “Separator” group, select “Oval Area” and create a layer. And under the block of entries, while holding Shift, draw a circle, then fill it with this color #efefef.

Deselect the selection and look for the middle of the circle using a ruler

Select the layer with our circle on it, right-click and select “Create a duplicate layer.” Drag it a little to the left.

In the top panel, go to the “Editing” - Transformation tab and select Scaling. And we make a circle a little smaller than the first one, while holding Shift to make the circle even.

This is what you should get:

Copy the layer of this small circle and move it to the left again. We also exactly reduce its size as written above, so that it turns out like this:

Now you need to create a duplicate of the middle circle and move it to the right, and do the same with the small circle. To make it clearer, do it as in the figure:

But this is what happened only in normal size:

Now we place the block of records under the block. Create a duplicate of our “Block” group. Select the cursor (topmost) on the toolbar. And drag our block of records down. and we do this 5 times.

Sidebar (right column)

We find our “Sidebar” group and create a “Search” subgroup in it. Using a line we do this:

Select the Rectangular Marquee tool and select the search field, then fill it with this color #eeeeee

Don’t forget to deselect, click on the “Horizontal Text” tool and write the word Search in the gray field

On the left, select the Free Shape tool and look for a magnifying glass shape on top. It is available in standard figures. Create a layer in the “Search” group, point it at the field and draw our figure while holding Shift.

The search field is ready. Now let's move on to widgets.

Create a “widget” group and a new layer in it. Then add lines as in the picture. This will be the background of our header, and fill it with this color #eeeeee

Now we need to add the title itself to our title; we do this using text. We’ll also add an icon to the title. To do this, you need to choose any shape that you like and that fits the meaning :) Don’t forget to hold down Shift when adding a shape. And fill it with this color #0dbfe5

And of course we need to add entries to our widgets. You need to select the horizontal text tool, then set the size to 16 pt. And make ka in the picture below

Then we simply create a duplicate of the group and drag the widget down. We do the same as with posts.

Now we can see an almost finished and simple layout for our future website.

Footer (Bottom of the site)

Well, what would we do without him? In this template it is also not very complicated.

As usual, create the “Footer” group and a layer in it. And mark it using a ruler, select our already favorite “rectangular area” tool, select it and fill it with #0dbfe5

Deselect the selection. Take “Horizontal Text”, find the font that we downloaded (Olivier), and enter our logo, only make the text color a little darker.

And on the right side of our footer we add a menu the same as on top only without the line. You can even just copy it and move it down.

That's all, friends, we have a ready-made layout that can already be typed up :)

Also, here is its PSD file. Download and see if you don’t understand something.

Friends, if you don’t understand anything, be sure to ask in the comments.

See you soon.

For such cases, it will be most convenient to create a template in Word, which will greatly facilitate the work. In the template, you can set page parameters, fix fonts and styles, and insert headers and footers, which is quite convenient for further use when creating documents of the same type.

In order to create a template, you need to launch Word. You need to start by setting the fields. Select the “File” command, then the “Page Setup” tab. When creating a document template for a company or organization, postal details are set in the header or footer. This can be done either from text file, and inserted .

The next step is to set the style of the document. To do this, go to the “Format” tab and select the “Styles and Formatting” command. A panel will open to the right of the template being created, spanning the entire height of the screen. Here you can set font and paragraph formatting options. Here you can enter the name of the future template, for example, “Standard letter” or “Office memo”.

The next step is to create an address style, such as “Boss” or “Dear.” To conveniently place the appeal on the page and secure the borders, we insert . Using the cursor, set the left and right margins. To prevent the fields from being printed, right-click on to open the dialog box and activate the “Borders and Fills” command. In the new window, use the mouse cursor to activate the box opposite “No lines”, and then select the scope of application “Apply to the entire table” and click OK. From this moment on, the borders of the table will be visible only on the screen for the convenience of the user, and the table itself will become “invisible” to the printer.

The same invisible table can be created at the bottom of the page and enter the name of the position of the employee (manager) who has the right to sign and his last name. You can also set your own style and font for the main text. The main thing is that it does not differ much from the fonts of the header and the company’s postal details included in the footers, otherwise the print will show too striking an effect in the style of the characters, which may not be to everyone’s liking. In general, when preparing official documents, you need to adhere to certain rules of business etiquette.

To complete the work and make the template usable, you need to save it to your computer's hard drive. But not as a regular document, but in the form of a template. To do this, select the “File” tab, then “Save as...”. In the dialog box, in the lower “File Type” field, you need to specify “Document Template”. All templates in Word have a dot extension, while regular documents have a doc file extension.

As I already reported, this article was first published on the Computerra-Online website on July 26, 2006. Now it is possible to place it on your home site.

Read, try, and if you have any questions, ask in the comments. And, of course, criticize and/or complement.

Quite often, in the course of our activities, we create documents of the same type: acts, orders, letters, contracts, coursework... All these documents, as a rule, contain some text or graphic elements: headings, details, logos, etc., repeating in every document.

An inexperienced user, when creating another document, is either forced to use and edit an already existing document containing these elements, or simply copy certain elements, again, from an old file, into a new document. Moreover, realizing that in this case editing is inevitable.

Sample defines the basic structure of a document and contains document settings such as AutoText elements, fonts, assigned keyboard shortcuts, macros, menus, page setup, formatting, and styles.

(From Word Help)

This routine can be reduced to a minimum if you create a document based on a template. Sometimes patterns are also called “fish”. However, no matter what you call it, templates really allow you to significantly increase your work efficiency.

A template can be created in two ways: by taking as a basis a document with all the elements present, or by starting from scratch, including the necessary elements yourself.

I'll tell you how to create a template from scratch, because this way it will be easier to understand the whole process rather than modifying an existing file. As an example, we will create a simple formal letter template.

So let's get started.

1. Let's create an empty document.
2. Let's save it right away. Let's go to the menu File(File) and select the command Save as...(Save as...). The Save Document dialog box will open, in which we need to select in the field File type(Save as type) Document template (*.dot)(Document Template (*.dot).

By default, the Templates folder will be opened, where all templates are saved. Give the file a name and click Save.

3. We determine which elements (text and graphics) and where exactly will be located in the document.

As a rule, all official letters contain elements such as: name of the organization, logo, details. The text of the letter itself may contain a polite address to the recipient of the letter and, in fact, the text of the letter itself. At the end of the letter is the name of the position of the head of the organization with his signature.

Let's take this letter structure as a basis.

We will place the name of the organization at the top of the document, centered. For this:

Thus, we created a permanent (unchangeable) part of our template, the so-called “header”. Now let's move on and create the fields into which you will later enter your data.

On the left side of the template, under the “header,” double-click and type the name of your city, for example: Moscow. Then, in the opposite (right) part of the template, double-click the mouse again and insert the date where the cursor blinks. For this:

If you have this text (read: field) displayed as regular text without shading, then I recommend doing such shading. This will allow you to later easily identify the required fields in the document to enter your data.

To do this, go to the menu Service(Tools) and select the command Options(Options) and on the tab View(View) in group Show(Show) select from the list field shading(Field shading) option Always(Always).

Below you can additionally insert a similar field for the recipient’s address and position.

All we have to do is insert a welcome message to the recipient of this letter, the text of the message itself and the sender’s signature at the bottom.

Try to insert these fields into your template yourself, based on the instructions given above.

For example, you can take a look at the screenshot of the template I created.

Now, to use this template to create a letter, you need to go to the menu File(File) and select the command Create(New). The Task Pane will appear on the right, in which you need to select the option General Templates(On my computer). A window will open with available templates. Select your template and click OK. A new document based on your template will be loaded into Word. Add your data to the fields and enjoy the automation.

And if you have questions, then ask. I will try to answer them.

Routine work with documents of the same type can be minimized if you create them based on Word templates. Our material today is about what they are and how to create them.

Quite often, in the course of our activities, we create documents of the same type: acts, orders, letters, contracts, term papers, etc. All these documents, as a rule, contain some text or graphic elements - headings, details, logos, text blocks, repeated from document to document.

Regular user text editor Word, when creating another document, is forced to use and edit a document that has already been created by someone and contains all these elements, or simply copy the necessary elements into a new document, again, from the old file, moreover, realizing that in this case editing is inevitable.

A template defines the basic structure of a document and contains document settings such as AutoText elements, fonts, assigned keyboard shortcuts, macros, menus, page setup, formatting, and styles. (From Word Help)

This routine can be minimized if you create a document based on a template. Sometimes patterns are also called “fish”. However, no matter what you call it, templates really allow you to significantly increase your work efficiency.

A template can be created in two ways, taking as a basis a document with all the elements present, or starting from scratch, including the necessary elements yourself.

I'll show you how to create a template from scratch, making it easier to understand the entire process rather than modifying an existing file. As an example, we will create a simple formal letter template. There is nothing complicated about this if you follow my step-by-step instructions.

So let's get started.

1. Let's create a blank document.

2. Let's save it right away. Let's go to the "File" menu and select the "Save as..." command. The “Save Document” dialog box will open, in which we need to select the “Document Template (*.dot)” type in the “Save as type” field.

The Templates folder will open, where all templates are saved by default. Give the file a name and click the "Save" button.

3. We determine which elements (text and graphics) and where exactly will be located in the document.

As a rule, all official letters contain elements such as the name of the organization, logo, and details. The text of the letter itself may contain a polite address to the recipient of the letter and, in fact, the text of the letter itself. At the end of the letter is the name of the position of the head of the organization with his signature. We will take a similar structure of the letter as a basis.

4. We will place the name of the organization at the top of the document in the center. To do this, we will print the name of our organization in capital letters, for example, “WHITE NIGHTS” LLC. Press the Enter key and go to a new line.

5. We can insert a dividing line below. To do this, click on the “Drawing” button. A drawing panel with control buttons will appear at the bottom of the screen. We are interested in lines, so we select the corresponding “Line” button. The mouse cursor turns into a cross.

Please note: you may have a so-called canvas inserted - a dotted area for inserting shapes/drawings. To prudently get rid of the canvas insertion, go to the “Tools” menu and select the “Options” command. Click the General tab and uncheck the option automatic creation Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes. Click "OK" and close the "Options" window.

6. Move the cursor in the shape of a cross to the name of the organization and just below draw a line from the blinking cursor to the right edge of the field, pressing and holding the left mouse button. The line is drawn.

7. You can leave the line as is, or you can give it a more elegant look. To do this, there is a corresponding Line Style button on the drawing panel. Click on it and select any type.

8. Once you have settled on any type of line, double-click below that line - the address and details of the organization will be printed in this place. Type the data that you consider necessary: ​​legal and actual address, telephone, fax, website URL, E-mail, bank details.

9. Now format the typed text according to your ideas. For example, I selected the name of the organization and assigned it the style “Heading 1”. I also centered the title and created a sparse five-point spacing between letters.

I reduced the font size of the text below the line to nine points and aligned it to the center. You can see a sample below in the screenshot.

Thus, we have created a permanent (unchangeable) part of our template, the so-called “header”. Now let's move on and create the fields into which you will later enter your data.

On the left side of the template, under the “header,” double-click and type the name of the city, for example, Moscow. Then, in the opposite (right) part of the template, double-click the mouse again and insert the date where the cursor blinks. For this:

1. In the “Insert” menu, select the “Date and Time” command. A window will open in which you select the desired date display format, for example July 18, 2006.

2. Check the “Update automatically” box. Now, when creating a new document based on this template, the date will already be set in accordance with the current time on your computer.

3. On the right side of the template below the date - indented from the left edge by about 10 cm along the horizontal ruler - double-click the mouse. The cursor will blink, and in this place we will insert a field to substitute the data of the recipient of the letter.

4. In the “Insert” menu, select the “Field” command. A window will open as in the screenshot below:

5. In the Categories area, select Document Automation. In the Field names area, select the MacroButton command. In the "Message" area (Display text), type the text "Insert recipient's full name" and click OK.

Strictly speaking, in the “Macro name” area you should have specified NoMacro (that is, a command without a macro), but it was not in the list. Therefore, we leave it as is, at least I have never encountered any errors.

6. We get a field with our text.

If you have this field displayed as regular text without shading, then I recommend doing such shading. This will allow you to later easily identify the required fields for data entry in the document. To do this, go to the “Tools” menu and select the “Options” command and on the “View” tab, in the “Show” group, select the “Always” option from the Field shading list ).

Below you can additionally insert a similar field for the recipient’s address and position.

All we have to do is insert a welcome message to the recipient of this letter, the text of the message itself and the sender’s signature at the bottom. Try to insert these fields into your template yourself, based on the instructions given above, and do not forget to save the resulting template.

For example, you can take a look at the screenshot of the template I created:

Now, to use this template to create a letter, you need to go to the “File” menu and select the “New” command. A task pane will appear on the right, in which you need to select the “General templates” (On my computer) option. A window will open with all available templates. Select the template you created and click "OK". A new document based on your template will be loaded into Word. Add your data in the appropriate fields and enjoy the automation.