Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101 Logo:Jegsworks Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101
Home > Jan's CompLit 101 > Working with Words > AutoTools > Templates > Save as Template
Icon: Arrow - Previous pagePrevious    NextIcon: Arrow - Next page

Jan's Working with Words

    Templates: Save As Template

Letter - completed
You've done a lot of work to get the look of this letter just right. To use the same scheme for other letters is an attractive thought!

The brute force way is to open the saved letter and rewrite the parts that don't apply to the new letter. That method has a high risk of saving your changes over the original letter. You can do better by creating your own template. Word protects templates so that you have to make an effort to mess one up.

There are only two important things to do to create a template:

  1. Create the document parts and paragraph and character styles that you want to reuse.
  2. Save the document as a template in a folder where Word can find it.
    (This can be harder than it should be!)

Saving a Template

Dialog: Save As - Word template (Word 2010)To save your template, click the Office button or the File tab and then  Save As. In the Save As dialog, pick the Word Template type with the dotx extension. The extension dotm is for templates that have macros in them. A macro is a short piece of code to do something automatically.

You must save your template to the right location for Word to find it. The default location varies with the version of Word and whether or not your computer is set up to allow multiple users.

Location 1: Custom Templates folder

When you choose Save As and pick the dotx file type, the dialog display should switch to the folder for custom templates, but it may not. Very inconvenient when it does not.

Office puts the files that you save as templates in a special folder, not with the templates are installed with Office. Exactly where depends on the version of Windows and on the version of Office that you are using.

Custom Templates are stored in a folder with a path similar to:
  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates (Word 2007, 2010)
  C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Custom Office Templates (Word 2013, 2016)

When Word shows you templates to choose for a new document, your new custom template will be listed in the category My templates (Word 2007, 2010) or Personal (Word 2013, 2016).

Location 2: Your own location for custom templates

You can set your own location in Word Options > Advanced > General section > File Locations... button. Click on User templates and then on the Modify button. Navigate to the folder you want to use or type in the path to the location. Now, when you choose New, templates from this location will appear under My templates or Personal.

Idea: Save your file as a template to a subfolder of the folder where Office stores its templates. When you choose New, your template (or the subfolder it is in) will show along with the templates that Office installed. Cool!

Templates installed with Microsoft Office are in a folder similar to:
  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Templates
  C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033
  C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office 15\root\Templates\1033

The 1033 in the path is for the English version. Other languages have a different number.

If you are on a network, your network administrator may be using this setting for sharing templates for the workgroup. You will have to find out if you have permission to save your own templates separately. To keep others from being able to change your templates requires that the administrator set up a folder for you with permissions set that allow only you to make changes.

To Edit a Template

You can edit a template, even the ones that Word installs, or you can use one as the basis for a new template.

Dialog: New - template selected (Word 2010)To make changes to a template, you must open it as a template rather than use it to create a new document.  Older versions of Word let you pick how to use the template when you pick it in the New dialog. But more recent versions do not offer this helpful shortcut.

Instead, to edit an existing template, use the Open command and navigate to where the template is stored and select it. Word will open it for editing. When you save your changes, you will be saving as a template.

WarningCreate a pattern: When editing a template, don't get carried away and write your document instead of just the pattern for a document!

WarningWatch the file type in dialogs! Once you have saved a new template, the next time you save a document, the file type will be set to Word Template (*.doxt) and only dotx files will show in the dialog! You must select Word Document (*.docx) in the File Type text box yourself.

Icon Step-by-Step 

Step-by-Step: Saves as a Template

  Icon Step-by-Step
What you will learn: to create a template from an existing document
to save a template to your own folder

Start with: Icon: Class storage device, letter6-Lastname-Firstname.docx

You will create a template using the document letter6-Lastname-Firstname.docx. To do this, you will remove text from the letter and substitute some temporary text. You may also change the Date to a field so it will update automatically whenever you use the template.

Delete Header

The header was put in so you could turn in your print-out to your instructor. You probably don't want that in your template!

  1. Icon: Class storage deviceSave As letter7-Lastname-Firstname.docx in the folder word project2
  2. Double click the Header to open it.
  3. Delete all the text in the header and close the header.

Insert Date Field

You can insert a field that will automatically put the current date on your letter. If your computer does not keep time well, this might write the wrong date. On the other hand, if your computer is that far off, you've got a more important problem than this template!

  1. Letter with date removedClick on the Date line of the letter.
  2. Press the END key to move the cursor to the right end of the date.

  3. Press the DELETE key repeatedly until the entire date is deleted and then once more to delete the frame.

    Icon: TroubleProblem: Image disappeared
    Your selection included the anchor for the image.
    Solution: Undo your actions. Delete the date again, being careful not to delete too many times. 

  4. Dialog: Date/Time (Word 2010)On the Insert tab in the Text tab group, click on the Date & Time buttonButton: Date/Time (Word 2010).
  5. Select the date format that is like December 10, 2010.
  6. If necessary, check the box for Update automatically.
  7. Click on OK.
  8. If necessary, press ENTER to put the dots on a separate line.

  9. Icon: Class storage deviceSave.
    [letter7-Lastname-Firstname.docx]

    Letter 5 with date frame replaced with auto date

Replace with Temporary Text

Next you need to replace the letter's actual text with some temporary text that will remind you what information is needed in each spot.

  1. Below the date, select  Luis Perez   and type  [Recipient] .
  2. Select all of the lines for the address underneath and type  [Recipient's address] .
  3. Select the Salutation, Dear Luis Perez: and type  [Greeting]:
  4. Select the words to the right of SUBJECT: and delete them.
  5. Select the body of the letter and type  [Type body of letter here]  
  6. Select the text of the CC line without selecting the final paragraph mark.
    Press the DELETE key
    (If you delete the whole line, you may change the paragraph white space for AAA Sales.)
  7. Icon: Class storage deviceSave.
    [letter7-Lastname-Firstname.docx]

    Letter 5 with temporary text for use as template

Save as Template

To see this document as a template in the New dialog, you must save it with the template file format and to a location that Word will look at.

  1. Click on the Office button or the File tab and then on Save As. (Very important!!!)
  2. Icon: Word 2013 Icon: Word 2013 Word 2013, 2016: Pick a location. (It does not matter where!)

  3. Choose file type  Word Template (*.dotx) .
    The dialog should switch to the correct folder for templates.
    [My experience has been that Word 2013 does switch but previous versions often did not.]

    If you see a link to Templates in the Favorites section of your folder tree, click on it to get to the correct folder easily!

    Otherwise...
    Navigate to where Word looks for your custom templates, which is should be one of the following:
    Icon: WinXP Win XP:         C:\Users\<username>\Application Data\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates
    Icon: VistaIcon: Win7 Icon: Win8 Icon: Win8Vista/Win7/Win8/Win10: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

    Icon: TroubleProblem: Cannot find Templates folder
    You must have Windows Explorer/File Explorer set to show hidden files and folders.
    Solution:
    Earlier versions of Windows:     In Windows Explorer, click on the Organize button > Folder and search options > View tab > check the box beside Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Click on OK.
    Icon: Win8 Icon: Win8 Win8, Win10: In File Explorer on the View tab check the box Hidden items.

  4. Create a new folder with the name  Student Templates.  
  5. If necessary, double-click on the folder Student Templates to open it in the dialog.
  6. Name your template  AAASalestemplate-Lastname-Firstname , and click the Save button.
  7. Close the document.

 Dialog: Save As - template (Word 2010) Dialog: Save As - template (Word 2016)

Create new document from your template

  1. Click on the Office button or the File tab and select New.
  2. Click on My templates or Personal and then on Student Templates.

    Dialog: New > Student Templates (Word 2010) Backstage View: New > Personal > Student Templates > letter template (Word 2013)

    Notice the preview. Sometimes these small views are a bit off.

    [If the template didn't show, consult with your instructor to find out why. Did you save the template to the correct folder??]

  3. Click on your template.

    Icon: Word 2007 Icon: Word 2010 Word 2007, 2010: Be sure the radio button for Document is selected in the lower right.
    Click     on OK.

    A new document opens using your template! You are a success!

    The date is today's date and the signature line now has your name since you are the default author when logged in with your own name.

  4. Create a header with your name, two spaces, the date, tab twice, and  Word Project 2 .  
  5. New document from AAA template (Word 2016)Icon: Class storage device Save the document as  letter-AAAtemplate-Lastname-Firstname.docx  in the  word project2  folder on the Class disk.
  6. Print icon Print.
  7. Close the document.
  8. Close Word.
    You have completed your second Word project!