Word 2007: The Missing Manual

Chapter 20. Creating Your Own Themes and Templates

You don’t have to work for a big company to want all your documents to look consistent. Even if you’re using Word to dash off letters to the editor, to write a family newsletter, or to harangue local politicians, a few well-coordinated colors, fonts, and maybe even a personal logo can make you seem like you’re backed by your own professional design staff. Word is happy to help, thanks to the program’s themes and templates.

Themes control (and help unify) the color scheme and fonts used in your document. With themes, you can easily apply consistent colors, fonts, and effects to entire documents with the click of a button. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint all use the same themes, so if your project involves two or more of these programs, by using the same theme, you can ensure a consistent appearance throughout. Templates help you quickly generate documents that are already loaded up with boilerplate info and design elements. All you have to do is fill in the content. This chapter shows you how to create, modify, and save your own themes and templates.

Note

If you’re interested in how to actually use themes and templates in your documents, see Chapter 5.

Designing Your Own Themes

Word’s built-in themes define three kinds of document elements: colors, fonts, and effects. To create your own theme, you make your own choices from each of these areas.

• Colors. Each theme defines a dozen colors for specific document elements such as body text, ...