Create and modify Workbook templates

Create and Modify Workbook Templates

If you create workbooks with the same structure but different data content more than once or twice a year, you should consider creating a template, which is a workbook that contains existing formatting and headings so that you only need to plug in your data. Templates are especially valuable for those of documents which are used frequently, such as weekly presentations, application forms, and expense reports. In Office 2011, there are a quite bit number of templates that are installed as a part of the installation components

From Excel Workbook Gallery

1.   Open the Excel Workbook Gallery

• From the Toolbar, click New Template button

 

• From the Menu Bar, click File then New from Templates

• Command keyboard shortcut: shift + command + P

2.   Select a desired template from the gallery and

3.   Press return key on the keyboard or click Choose button at the right bottom of the gallery window to create your workbook

4.   Modify the contents of the workbook if desired and save it

Using an existing workbook

1.   Open an existing workbook that you want to use as a template

 

    TIP       Some tips for creating a template:

• Keep a generic title which can be changed easily to reflect the specific report you are creating
• Make headers remain constant
• Clear data contents in the workbook that would be specific to a particular report

• Select the data range on the workbook
• Press control + click then select Clear Contents
  

   

2.   To save the document as a template, from the Menu Bar, click File then Save as

 

 3.   In the Save As dialog box, do the following:

• Change the filename in the Save as field if desired, for example SalesReportTemplate
• Click the Where list button, to select the destination to save the template, for example My Templates

 TIP       It is important to save workbook templates in the My Templates folder so Excel looks for the custom templates under My Templates in the Excel Workbook Gallery

• Click Format list button to change the format from Excel Workbook (.xlsx) to Excel Template (.xltx) from the list
• Click Save button