Will Kelly

For reasons that continue to elude me, I’ve come across a lot of Microsoft Word template issues in my time.  Some so bad that what should be a simple productivity tool ends up hobbling documentation efforts. Finding template issues is a never-ending source of disappointment for me.  Perhaps it is because I am used to setting up templates in the early stages of a project and keep the fuss to a minimum.

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 roll out of Microsoft Office and saw how end users (who weren’t technical writers) actually used the applications and their varied levels of understanding.

These experiences got me to put together what I am calling my Microsoft Word Template Manifesto:

Templates are a productivity tool. Word templates are primarily productivity tools. They should never be an obstacle in the way of creating and publishing documents. 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. Templates should never stand in the way of author productivity.

Templates should govern styles. The Word template is in place to govern styles in a given document format. Take the time to ensure that your template has also the necessary style formats so users don’t have to format anything in their documents manually.

Templates should be lean with a minimum of extraneous styles.  Keep your templates lean with only the styles that are needed in the document. Additionally, factor in the time to maintain the templates over the long haul so they remain a productivitiy tool versus

Templates should include a cheat sheet or job aid. Using document templates isn’t second nature to everybody. 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.

Templates should be accounted for in the style guide. 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!).

 Templates are *dot files and installed on the local hard drive. 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 for novice users too. It’s easy to think, It’s just Microsoft Word. I was guilty of falling into that trap because working as a technical writer means I live in Microsoft Word most days (and evenings). Templates need to be easy to use and follow so users of varying Word skills can use them independently. 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 love too. There needs to some ongoing maintenance and monitoring of any templates an organization uses for documentation. This ensures that no issues have cropped up and authors are using the templates in a correct manner.