![]() This ensures that no issues have cropped up and authors are correctly using the templates. There needs to some ongoing maintenance and monitoring of any templates an organization uses for documentation. When users get frustrated with a template, they may attempt to iron man their styles thereby introducing inconsistencies that may or may not get picked up in the editorial process or by a reader farther down the line. Templates need to be easy to use and follow so users of different Word skills can use them independently. I was guilty of falling into that trap because working as a technical writer means I live in Microsoft Word most days (and evenings). It’s easy to think it’s just Microsoft Word. I’ve inherited templates of varying shaded and interpretations so I long ago came up with my own rather unoriginal and vanilla standards for template usage which first and foremost is that a template is a *.dot file that is installed locally on a hard drive. Templates are *dotx files and installed on the local hard drive You can download free, pre-built document templates with useful and creative themes from Office when you click File > New in your Office app. There can be nothing more irritating to new and grizzled document authors alike than document templates not matching up with the documentation style guide (provided your organization even has one of these!). Styles guides should document template usage I’ve long been a proponent to include a job aid or cheat sheet with templates I create so everybody is using the template styles in the manner they are intended. Using document templates isn’t second nature to everybody. Additionally, factor in the time to maintain the templates over the long haul, so they remain a productivity tool versus Templates should include a job aid Keep your templates lean with only the styles that are needed in the document. Templates should be lean with few extraneous styles Take the time to ensure that your template also has the necessary style formats, so users don’t have to format anything in their documents manually. The Word template is in place to govern styles in a given document format. Templates should never stand in the way of author productivity. A proper template does the driving when it comes to document design and formatting so the author can focus on writing and editing document content. They should never be an obstacle in the way of creating and publishing documents. These experiences got me to put together what I am calling my Microsoft Word Template Manifesto: Templates are a productivity tool Though along the way, my Microsoft Office experience and published writing credits on the subject got me put on some projects where I supported the rollout of Microsoft Office and saw how end users (who weren’t technical writers) used the applications and their varied levels of understanding. Perhaps it’s because I usually create templates in the early stages of a project and keep the fuss to a minimum. Finding template issues is a never-ending source of disappointment for me. Some templates were so bad that what should be a simple productivity tool ends up hobbling documentation efforts. For reasons that continue to elude me, I’ve come across a lot of Microsoft Word template issues in my time.
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