I often get asked to create templates for a clients, when in reality what they want is not a template, but the formatting cleaned up in an existing document. This happens often enough I thought perhaps I should shine a light on what Microsoft Office templates really are, how awesome they are, and how they can be put to work for your company.
Let’s start with the most important rule: Always begin with the actual template file so all the branded styles and building blocks load correctly. Do not open an old document and start typing – old documents carry old unbranded formatting.
In short, Word Documents are for unique content creation, whereas Word Templates enable consistent and efficient creation of multiple documents based on a predefined format. This distinction is central to maintaining professional or standardized documentation.
Using branded styles in a Word template means you never manually format anything. You apply the pre‑built Styles (Heading 1, Body Text, Quote, Table Text, etc.) your template already defines. Those styles carry the correct font, size, spacing, colors, and branding. You simply select the text → click the correct Style → done.
Word Document (.docx)
A Word Document is a standard file containing written content, formatting, images, tables, and other elements. Each Word Document is unique, and changes made to it do not affect other documents. Documents are saved with a .docx extension and are intended for direct editing and sharing.
A document can be created, saved as a document, and closed. And then maybe you open it up again and type in more content or update the colour of a title, and save and close it again. Every time you open it up, you’ll see the name of the document at the top of the Word window. And then maybe you want to change something else, so you open it, delete part, change a few bullets, rearrange how a table appears, save it, close it, and realize you’ve just overwritten what you created in the first place and no amount of swearing will get it back.
Word Template (.dotx)
A Word Template is a special file designed to provide a predefined structure, style, and formatting for new documents. Instead of containing unique content, a template establishes defaults such as font styles, paragraph settings, headers, footers, tables, and even placeholder text. When you open a template, Word creates a new document based on it, leaving the original template unchanged. This ensures consistency across multiple documents, which is especially useful for business letters, reports, presentations, or forms where the same formatting is repeatedly required.
A template can be created, saved as a template, and closed. It can be stored so when you open Word, you can find it on the New » My Templates section. Every time you choose File » New and choose your template you’ll see Document and a number at the top of the Word window, like Document 4, but not the name of the template, because you’ve not opened the template, you’ve opened blank document based on the template and you can do whatever you want to it without damaging the actual branded template. When you want to save your changes to this document, you will not be able to overwrite the template with Save, but are prompted to Save As. From this point forward, you will have a unique document that acts as a document, and if you change fonts or colours or spacings or alignments, it will be to this document only, and not to the template.
| Word Document (.docx) | Word Template (.dotx) | |
| Purpose | Store a unique, individual document | Provide a reusable structure for new documents |
| Content | Primary content: text, images, etc. | Predefined formatting, styles, placeholders |
| Editing | Changes affect this document only | Changes do not affect existing documents; new documents use template |
| Use Case | Letters, essays, reports, personal work | Company letterheads, standardized forms, report templates |
Microsoft has kindly provided you with a template for every program you have, but you don’t really realize it since when Word or Excel opens up, it just looks like a blank page for you to fill in. But there are attributes already on that page, making it a template. The margins are 1 inch all around, the font is Aptos, and the font colour is black. There are Bullets and Styles for you to use (direct formatting), already set up, as well as a range of colours to choose from in the palette. Of course, you can change all of this each and every time you start a document, but the point of a template is to make it easy to start a document.
Let’s go over that again…
the point of a template is to make it easy to start a document.
What do templates have to do with Branding? Everything.
Most companies have documents they produce time and time again, and to look professional these documents should look the same each and every time. And everyone in the company should be using the same look, each and every time that type of document is created. This is part of the Branding process. Branding as in the brand the cattle ranchers put on their cattle so everyone recognizes those cows as theirs. Branding as in when you see a big red plus sign you know it’s the Red Cross. Branding as in when you see a swooshy check mark, you know it’s Nike. Branding as in when you see a certain green in a circle with white writing and even if you can’t read it from far away down the street when you’re looking for your caffeine fix, you know it’s Starbucks.
The professional design team has worked with upper management to determine the direction your company is going, they’ve considered the science of the design and what your company needs from the branding strategy. “Science of design?” you ask, incredulous. Yes. Science. Colours evoke emotion. Fonts evoke emotion. White space evokes emotion. Alignment evokes emotion. In short, design is all about emotion. What do we want the consumers to consume? A well designed brand facilitates their consumption of your message, your brand, your product.
Back to Office templates
In accordance with what the professional design crew has established as your brand, most likely in Adobe InDesign, I create Word Templates for your company to use. A template is essentially a consistent structure within which you create your companies’ documents. The proper colours, fonts, spacings, alignments are already in place, so all you have to concern yourself with is new content. Designers will use jargon like leading and bleed and u/l, none of which you have to concern yourself with (unless, of course, you’re working on the branded design with them). All you have to do is follow the example of what each piece of content is to look like (referred to as a Style), and you’re golden.
Yeah, but how do I use these Styles?
- Open the template.
- Type in content.
- Highlight the content you’d like to be Heading 1.
- Select Heading 1 from the Quick Styles Gallery on the Home tab.
or alternately
- Open the template.
- Select Heading 1 from the Quick Styles Gallery on the Home tab.
- Type in content.
- Select Body text from the Quick Styles Gallery on the Home tab.
- Type in content.
That’s it?
That’s it.
Templates save time (and time is money)
One of the biggest benefits of using the Styles in a template (or just a document) is the ability to create a comprehensive and up-to-date Table of Contents in seconds. Every heading associated with Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 all populate a pre-formatted Table of Contents, complete with page numbers. I can go on and on and on about how using Styles can help you be more efficient; they’re a pretty great tool.
To get an idea of the value templates provide here’s a short & sweet story.
Frustrated by the poor formatting and styles in the existing agreement documents, a client reached out to see what could be done to speed up the process as it was taking her over 60 hours to create one Agreement. We worked together to create a formatted template with styles and linked Content Controls so when one field was filled in it auto-filled throughout the rest of the document, while maintaining the numbering convention of the Headings for an easy-to-update Table of Contents. What used to take the client over 60 hours to fill in and format now takes about six.
How’s that for awesome?!
Of course, there’s much more you can do with templates, but in and of itself, what you’ve just read is pretty darn awesome. Templates offer the ability to have multiple versions of legalese at your fingertips, depending on the situation, all handy-like in the Quick Parts. Or multiple types of tables in the Quick Tables section. There are Themes you can utilize for your company’s colours and font selections so you never have to search for the proper colour for your bar graphs.
In Excel and PowerPoint, templates can be created and saved so you can access them from New > My Templates section and the Themes mentioned above are universal across Microsoft Office. Styles do not come across like the Themes, because neither are word processing programs. Styles are the main focus in Word, just like how formulas are the main focus in Excel, and slides are the main focus in PowerPoint.
Let’s recap.
A template is
a consistent structure within which you create your companies’ documents with the proper colours, fonts, spacings, alignments are already in place, so all you have to concern yourself with is new content.
A template is not
a document filled with old content you edit and save as over and over again, replete with old formatting issues.
If you’d like to know more about templates and how we can get them working for you, give me a call.
» Michelle