MS Office 101

Did You Notice...

that there are several tabs in the New window when you go to open a template you've created?

What's up with all those tabs?

Well, to tell the truth, the tabs are useful little creatures.

Next time you go to open a template slow down and browse through them.

You'll find that on the tabs are other templates—ones you never created!

Those would be the templates that came with the program.

If you find yourself in need of a memo format or fax form then try one of the Word templates. If you need an invoice or other spreadsheet-type thing then take a look through Excel's templates.

These are resources just sitting there waiting to be put to good use. Give one or two a whirl—you might just find that a template will save the day (or at least make it a little easier).

Office Tip of the Day

Custom Template Tabs

Do you use a lot of templates?

Are you annoyed by the sheer number of them on the General tab in the New window?

Wish there was a way to sort them out and make them easier to locate quickly?

If you find yourself answering "Yes, yes, yes!" then you're in the right place because this tip is all about making custom tabs for those templates.

Let's bring some organization to the situation. Let's "file" the templates into the tabs of our choosing and clean up the mess.

Ok, so if you're still with me then you're all for custom tabs and organized templates. Time to get busy.

The first thing you need to do is to navigate to the Templates folder within the Microsoft Office folder.

On many computers you would need to use the My Computer program, then go to the c:\ drive. On the c:\ drive I have to go to the Program Files folder. It's in there that I can now find the Microsoft Office folder and within that the Templates folder.

Wherever your Microsoft Office folder is located, you need to find it.

Once in the Template folder you need to create a new folder. (File menu, New submenu, Folder choice will do the trick.)

Name the folder whatever you want the template tab to read.

Now simply drag and drop any templates you want to appear on that tab into the folder.

You can put different types of templates (Excel, Word, etc.) into the same folder.

The new tab will appear when you go to File menu, New choice in any program with a template in the folder.

(So don't panic if it doesn't show up in a program - it has to have a relevant template to be displayed with the standard tabs.)

When you're done with the drag / drop thing then you can close the window up because it's done. That's all there is to it.

Also, when you make new templates, don't forget about your custom tab(s) - you can create more than one you know. As you go to save a new template simply click into the correct folder in the Save As window. This will immediately display the template in the correct tab. (No drag / drop thing required.)

Yeah, I know - way too easy. Wondering why you didn't think of it earlier? Believe me, I thought the same thing.

~ April