Four-Step Plan of Attack with Microsoft Word Templates
1)
Get your company’s logo digitized in a format that can be
inserted readily into Microsoft Word documents and templates. If
it’s not already in an accessible electronic format such as .TIF
or .BMP, get your logo scanned in and touched up for clarity.
2)
Pull out your offset printing bills for the past year or so
and see where you’re spending the most. This will help you
prioritize your cost-saving potential. Then determine whether
some of these outside printing jobs could be handled internally
if your company, for example, purchased a special grade of paper
for your laser printer or invested in a high-speed color laser
printer. As a fellow small business owner, I know I’m
constantly evaluating these cost-saving possibilities.
3)
Assemble a team of Microsoft Word savvy staff members to
begin drafting some templates. For the sake of consistency and
branding, your staff should agree on a common set of formatting
styles (fonts, sizes and so forth). If your documents look
bland, vaguely resembling as much flair and pizzazz as something
coming off an electric typewriter, get familiar with some of the
included Microsoft Word templates and styles. Using these
pre-fabricated design elements is not difficult, but is often
the key difference between an amateurish and professional
document appearance.
4)
Don’t format text by hand in Microsoft Word. Templates
always include a set of preformatted styles, which you can
easily modify or add to. As seen in Figure 3-4, you can find the
Style drop-down list on the left side of the Formatting toolbar.
Be sure to use styles in your Microsoft Word documents to ease
your initial formatting and document maintenance.
Professionally designed styles give your
documents a sense of flair and consistency, while easing maintenance
burdens.
Keeping Employees on the Same Page with Microsoft Word Templates
To ensure consistency within your company,
place newly customized and created Microsoft Word templates (.dot
files) in a folder on your file server that all employees have
access to.
Then, under the Tools menu, Options command,
File Locations tab, select Workgroup Templates. Then Modify and
select the shared template folder location (Figure 3-5).
Tip:
To maintain greater centralized control, you may want to
give read-write permissions to these files only to
designated managers. Everyone else could get read-only
permissions.
By pointing all
employees’ Microsoft Word configurations to the same Workgroup
Templates folder on your server, you can ensure that everyone has
the same version of Microsoft Word templates available when choosing
the File, New command.
Microsoft Word Templates Action Items
Do you currently have a clean version of
your company logo in a digital format, ready for printing, such as .tif,
.bmp or .eps (Encapsulated PostScript)?
What kinds of printing jobs are typically
sent to your local offset printing company?
Have you ever considered whether any
printing jobs could be run internally if, for example, you purchased
a certain paper grade for your high-speed laser printer, or invested
in a high-speed color laser printer?
Which of your employees are most
highly-skilled on Microsoft Word and in the best position to
recommend and design a set of companywide document templates?
Are there certain employees that you'd want
to be the authorized maintainers of templates, while all others are
merely users and locked out from modifying templates?
Do you have any existing Microsoft Word
templates that are being used in different places in your company?
Are employees aware of how to use Microsoft
Word templates and accompanying formatting styles to give documents
a professional, consistent appearance?
Do you have a centralized folder on your file server where you can
access, store and manage the company library of Microsoft Word
templates?
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