Creating and Using a Template

Templates

 

Templates are a useful tool that are often forgotten or overlooked. People use them in Word to create invoices and other standardized forms but never think to apply that standardization to their Excel workbooks.

• If you use custom formats or find yourself applying a standardized formatting to every Excel document that you create (be it fonts, column widths, number formats )then you should consider creating a template.
• It can also be useful if you are working with others on a project such as a budget and want to ensure that the setup and formatting are all the same. You can create a template and then distribute it.

The easiest way to create a template is to simply create a worksheet with the formatting, column widths etc. that you want to use as the foundation and then save it.

 

• Create a worksheet and set it up as you want
• Go to the Office Button
• Select Save As
• Click on the drop-down arrow beside Save As Type
• Select Excel Template or Macro-Enabled Template if your workbook contains macros
• Enter a name for the template
• Click Save
  

 

 

The default is that the template is saved inside the Template Folder. However, you can save it elsewhere.

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If you have saved it in the default Template folder, it is extremely easy to retrieve.

Simply click on the Office ButtonSelect New
Select My templates... from the left column

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select the template you want and click OK

 

 

 

 

 

Since you saved the file as a Template, after you complete work on it and go to save it, Excel will prompt you to name it something else so that the template is not overwritten.