Microsoft Office

Using and Creating Templates 9
Template (*.xltm). Save the template in your Templates folder — which Excel automatically suggests — or a
folder within that Templates folder.
If you later discover that you want to modify the template, choose Office ➪ Open to open and edit the
template.
Ideas for creating templates
This section provides a few ideas that may spark your imagination for creating templates. The following is a
partial list of the settings that you can adjust and use in your custom templates:
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Multiple formatted worksheets: You can, for example, create a workbook template that has two
worksheets — one formatted to print in landscape mode and one formatted to print in portrait
mode.
Style: The best approach is to choose Home ➪ Styles ➪ Cell Styles and modify the attributes of
the Normal style. For example, you can change the font or size, the alignment, and so on.
Custom number formats: If you create number formats that you use frequently, you can store
them in a template.
Column widths and row heights: You may prefer that columns be wider or narrower, or you
may want the rows to be taller.
Print settings: Change these settings in the Page Layout tab. You can adjust the page orientation,
paper size, margins, and several other attributes.
Header and footer: Use Page Layout View, and enter a custom header or footer.
Sheet settings: These options are in the View ➪ Show/Hide group. They include gridlines, automatic
page break display, and row and column headings.
You can, of course, also create complete workbooks and save them as templates. For example, if you frequently
need to produce a specific report, you may want to create a template that has everything for the
report except for the data you need to enter. By saving your master copy as a template, you’re less likely to
overwrite the original file when you save the file after entering your data.
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