Using templates significantly improves efficiency and also promotes consistency and 'house style'. In fact,
the first episode of our 'Getting more mpg from Microsoft Office' series was devoted to templates. Perhaps Word is the most obvious application to benefit from the use of templates – from just setting the margins of a document to match your letterhead and continuation stationery, to the creation of largely standard documents that just need a few specific details added or edited. However, Excel is also a prime candidate for templates, allowing the work required to produce well-structured and well-documented spreadsheets to be easily applied to most of an organisation's spreadsheets. PowerPoint and Outlook should also not be overlooked – in terms of promoting 'house style', PowerPoint templates can be vital and Outlook templates combined with Outlook rules can fully automate certain types of emails.
The mechanics of turning your document, spreadsheet, presentation or email into a template are generally straightforward. You just use File, Save As (or Office button, Save As in Office 2007) and choose the template type rather than the document type. This should not only change your document into the appropriate template format, but usually will also set the 'Save In' location to the local template folder:
So far, so good, but what if you want to make your shiny new template available to others in your organisation? First create an appropriate folder in a shared network location and save your template to the new folder. Then, in Word, go to Tools, Options, File Locations (Word 2007: Office button, Word Options button, Advanced, General section, File Locations). Select the 'Workgroup templates' item and click on the Modify button to set it to your shared templates folder.
Although you've set this location in Word, it will apply to Excel and PowerPoint too. Just use File, New in any of the applications and in earlier version you should see your shared templates immediately, in more recent versions you will need to select the 'On my computer…' or 'My templates' option
If you are using XP or later, and you want to be able to go straight to the screen showing your own templates, you can add a button to the taskbar or, for 2007, Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). In XP and 2003 go to View, Toolbars, Customize and the Commands section. From the 'All commands' Category drag 'File New Dialog' to an existing toolbar it should display as 'Other…'. In 2007 right click in the QAT and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar, then All Commands category, 'New Document or Template' button