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February 24, 2006
Surely, Templates Are Something You Should Understand
Dear Larry,
I’m trying to create a template in Word, but I’m not sure
I’m doing it correctly. How exactly do I save a template, and once I do, how do
I retrieve it?
P. N.
Dear P. N.,
Unfortunately, templates are a mystery to so many Microsoft
Word users. But once you get the hang of them, they can be very powerful and
save you time and effort.
A template, for those of you not in the know, is a Word
document on which you might base other Word documents. For example, you might
want to create a blank form with special lines and page margins so that in the
future, you could create new forms, which you might complete and save as new
documents. Or you might create a “boilerplate” document, which you’ll later
customize and save for several different clients.
Create a template just like you would any other Word document.
What makes it a template is how you save it. When you’re ready to turn your new
document into a template, click File, Save As in the Word menu bar. In the
Filename box, give your template a name and then click in the Save As Type box
and change the setting to Document Template. Click Save to finish.
You’ll notice that Word saves new templates in a special
location. Sadly, the location is so special it’s almost impossible to find.
Here’s how to locate your Word templates: Click My Computer on your Windows
desktop. Then click Local Disk (C:). Next, click the yellow Documents and
Settings folder. Then click the folder icon corresponding to your Windows user
(login) name. In the next window, click the Application Data folder. Next, click
the Microsoft folder followed by the Templates folder. Whew!
You might want to create a shortcut to this folder so you can
return there more easily. To do so, click the Back button in the toolbar (or
just tap the Backspace key on your keyboard). With the Templates folder icon in
sight, right-click the icon, then left-click Copy. Close this window and decide
where you want to place your shortcut. For instance, you might want to put it in
your Documents folder (in which case you should open it now) or you might just
want it on your Windows desktop. Right-click on a blank space (either in the
folder or on the desktop) where you’d like the Templates shortcut to appear. In
the menu that pops up, left-click Paste Shortcut. Now click your new shortcut to
go directly to the Word Templates folder.
If you rely heavily on a particular Word template, you might
even want a shortcut to it directly on your desktop. Create this shortcut in the
same manner. Right-click its icon, left-click Copy, right-click a blank portion
of your Windows desktop, then left-click Paste Shortcut. Note that when you
click this shortcut to your template, it opens Word and generates a new document
based on your original Template document.
Templates are a great way to reduce redundancy. Now please
don’t make me repeat that!
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
