Templates
Save Time
In the office IT environment, the use of templates can save much time and heart-ache in day-to-day tasks. In one of the standard office suites of applications such as Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org, templates are an easy to use feature. Templates can allow for the setting of margins, inclusion of logos, standard text, headers and footers. For example, you could create an invoice template which only requires the client's contact details and fee to be completed.
Beautify Your Work
Templates also afford the ability to produce professional-looking documents as standard, rather than the ordinary "done up on my word processor" look. Set up a document once, and then use it many times.
How to do itCreating templates could not be easier. For illustration purposes, we will look at Microsoft's Word for Windows.
- Create a new document.
- Set it up to your liking, e.g. set margins and font according to your organisation's house style.
- Include a title header with your organisation logo and a footer with organisational information, e.g. CHY number, company number.
- Choose File>Save As>Document Template
The location at which templates are stored is set in Options (Tools>Options>File Locations). Word helpfully presents this location for you to save your newly created masterpiece template. Save your template and close it.
To actually use your template, choose File>New. You will be presented with various options, e.g. to open an existing file, a blank document or to create "new from existing template". Word will offer you the option of looking for templates on the web, or direct from Microsoft. We will elect to decline this kind offer on this occasion, searching for an option to use a template "On my Computer" or in "General Templates", or similar. (The terminology may vary, depending on the vintage of your particular installation).
Upon choosing to use an existing template on your PC, you will be presented with the available templates. Word comes with sample templates installed, and amongst them should reside your newly created template. If that is chosen, a new document with the standard name of "document 1.doc" will appear, incorporating all of the margin, header, font and logo information included in the template.
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Not just lettersThe exact same principles and techniques apply to Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet application, except Excel allows you to go further. Excel is an incredibly powerful piece of software and is the friend of office workers everywhere. Excel allows, for example:
- the inclusion of formulae to do the maths for you
- the formatting of individual cells, e.g. as currency
- the use of more advanced templates and logical statements, (e.g. if this value is less than the target value, make it RED, otherwise make it BLUE).
Going FurtherTemplates are also the core idea of the "mail merge", another time and effort saving process which is invaluable in the office environment. Many more specialist computer applications rely on them as well, not least Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems for letters and emails, and financial packages for statements, invoices, etc. Use them for electronic headed paper, for implementing standard organisation-wide styling, even to automatically insert today's date into every new document, just in the correct place. Create badges, labels, styled handouts, and have them evermore for future use with minimal effort.
Reuse and save effortTo sum up, templates save on typing, effort and time. And they are available as standard in the typical Office application suites.
