Objective 1.1: Manage Documents And Templates

  • 1.1.1 Modify existing templates.
  • 1.1.2 Copy custom styles, macros, and building blocks to other documents or templates.
  • 1.1.3 Manage document versions.
  • 1.1.4 Compare and combine multiple documents.
  • 1.1.5 Link to external document content.
  • 1.1.6 Enable macros in a document.
  • 1.1.7 Change default program settings
    • 1.1.7a Display hidden ribbon tabs.
    • 1.1.7b Change the application default font.

Modify existing templates

One purpose of a template is to give related documents a common look and feel. Templates provide style definitions and can contain elements such as cover pages, custom headers and footers, themes, and macros. The components of a template help you create a document that meets a defined specification without needing to design the document from scratch.

To modify a Word template that you created or that you downloaded from the Start screen or the New page of the Backstage view, you first open the template file. After you open the template, you can modify it by creating styles, changing the properties of existing styles, designing custom headers or footers, and making similar types of changes.

Templates that you create are stored by default in the Custom Office Templates folder, which is a subfolder of your Documents folder. (Word opens the Custom Office Templates folder automatically when you select Word Template in the Save As Type list.) Templates that you download are saved in the AppData folder in your user profile. You can open this folder from File Explorer by entering %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates in the address bar in File Explorer.

You can also modify a template when you are working on a document that is based on that template. For example, you can design a cover page for that template and then save that cover page as a building block. If you modify a template style while working in a document, you can apply the change only to the current document or to the template.

See Also: For more information about creating and modifying styles, see “Objective 2.2: Create styles.”

Screenshot of the Modify Style dialog box.

Select New Documents Based On This Template to include style modifications in the template

To open an existing template for modification

1. From the Open page of the Backstage view, browse to the folder where the template is saved (such as the Custom Office Templates folder or the Templates folder in the AppData folder of your user profile).

2. Select the template you want to modify, and then click Open.

Or

1. From File Explorer, browse to the folder where the template is stored.

2. Right-click the template, and then click Open.

To modify an existing template

1. Open the template.

2. Make the changes you want to the template’s styles and other elements.

3. Save and close the file.

To update a document’s template while modifying a style in the document

1. In the Modify Style dialog box, modify the style as required.

2. Select New Documents Based On This Template, and then click OK.

3. Save the document, and then click Yes when Word prompts you to save changes to the document template.