How do you find templates in Word?

Microsoft Word is one of the most widely used word-processing software packages, offering a wide range of templates to choose from when creating documents. 

Whether you need a business report or a personal letter, there are templates for Word documents that can make the process easier and faster.

You can also manage your documents, templates, and content library items easily with PandaDoc whether you created them in Word or not, as well as creating beautiful and classic documents. 

Read on to learn how to find templates in Word, how to load and unload templates or add-ins, and how to add an interactive component to your templates using features like form fields, content controls, and macros.

Where and how to find templates in Word

If you’re looking to find templates in Microsoft Word, you can follow the following steps:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Click on “File” in the top left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Choose “New” from the menu on the left-hand side.
4. You will see a list of template categories on the right-hand side of the screen, including “Featured,”“Personal,” and “Business.”
5. You can then choose a category that matches the type of document you would like to create.
6. Have a browse through all of the available templates until you find one that you like.
7. Select the template by clicking on it.
8. Click on “Create” to open the template and start making changes to it.

You can also search for templates by typing a keyword, such as “templates”, into the search box at the top of the screen.

This will throw up a list of templates for you that match your search term.

How to use templates in Word

Using templates in Word is simple.

Once you have a template opened on your screen, you can begin to customize it to suit your requirements. 

You can choose to add or delete text, make changes to the font and color scheme, add images or graphs and charts, and make changes to the layout as needed.

Some templates might have pre-designed placeholders for certain elements, such as images or text boxes, or even signature blocks, which you can replace with your own content.

When you’re finished making changes to the template, you can save the document as a new file.

This means that the original Microsoft Word template will stay a blank slate, unchanged so that it can be used again in the future.

How to load and unload templates or add-ins

If you wish to load or unload templates or add-ins in Word, you need to follow the following steps:

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Click on “File” in the left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Click on “Options” from the menu.
4. Select “Add-Ins”.
5. From the “Manage” drop-down list, select “Templates” or “Add-ins”, depending on what you wish to interact with.
6. Click the “Go” button next to the “Manage” list.
7. In the “Templates and Add-ins” dialog box, select what you want to load or unload.
8. Make sure the “Load” checkbox is selected for loading, or that it is cleared for unloading. 
9. Click “OK” to save your changes. 
10. Close the “Templates and Add-ins” dialog box.

Loading or unloading templates and add-ins sometimes needs administrative privileges.

If you’re using a shared computer or network, you might need to contact your IT department for help.

How to add an interactive component to a template

In order to add an interactive component to a template in Microsoft Word, you can make use of features like form fields, content controls, or macros. 

This is how you do it:

1. Open Word and create a new document with the template you want to alter.
2. Click on the “Developer” tab at the top of the screen. (If the “Developer” tab isn’t visible, you can enable it by going to “File” > “Options” > “Customize Ribbon” and selecting the “Developer” checkbox).
3. In the “Controls” group on the “Developer” tab, you can then click on the type of control you want to add.
4. Then place the control in the template where you want it to appear.
5. To set any options or formatting for the control, right-click on the control and select “Properties”.
6. Save the modified template as a new file. 

If you want to create more complex interactive components in your template, you can also use macros to do this.

You can use the Visual Basic Editor in Word to create a macro with the following steps: 

1. Open Word and click on the “Developer” tab.
2. Click on “Visual Basic” in the “Code” group on the “Developer” tab to open the Visual Basic Editor.
3. Write the macro code that will create the interactive component.
4. Save the macro and close the Visual Basic Editor.
5. Insert a button into your template and assign the macro to it.
6. Save the modified template as a new file to avoid affecting the original.

Some interactive components such as macros could require you to enable macro security settings in order to use them.  

Improve your documents in Word with PandaDoc templates

Word offers a solid array of templates, but if you want a vaster selection, head over to PandaDoc and learn how to create effective document templates easily. 

The document workflow platform offers a plethora of original and niche templates to cover all of your bases, whether you want a template for a legal contract or a personal letter.

If you can’t find what you need in the Word templates, or you want something more specific or original, check out PandaDoc for Word documents.