Templates in Microsoft Word: When, How, and Why They Are Used

Templates let you reuse the same structure and styles in numerous documents. When you apply a template to a document, Word applies the template’s styles and structure to the new document.

 

A few reasons we may use a template are consistency, accuracy, professionalism, and efficiency. It is a lot faster than editing all of the details out ourselves. 

 

The best time to apply a custom template is when you create the document using the New option (on the File tab). Word displays two template categories: Featured and Personal. To choose one of your custom templates, click the Personal tab and then click the custom template you want to apply.

Many times we want to use a template but would like to modify it. It is simple and the steps are as follows:

• On the File screen, choose the Options command.
• The Word Options dialog box appears.
• Choose Add-Ins from the left side of the Word Options dialog box.
• Choose Templates from the Manage drop-down list.
• You find the Manage drop-down list near the bottom of the dialog box.
• Click the Go button.

Word recognises five different types of template although one of these is used internally.

• Normal.dotm - This is loaded automatically whenever Word is opened.
• User Templates - These can be loaded manually.
• Workgroup Templates - These can be loaded manually.
• Global Templates - These load automatically whenever Word is open and must be saved in your startup folder.
• Non file based templates - These are special templates which are used internally by Word and cannot be used or changed by the user.