Templates for Real Work

Convenience means saving time and money. It also means a reduction in stress, and I am sure we all agree, that is a very good thing.

When it comes to Excel, using Custom Templates is one way of achieving such

convenience. Templates are not used nearly as much as they probably should be.  This is unfortunate, as these predesigned worksheets can save you a huge amount of time, and make you look even more professional in the process.

Any Excel user can easily find thousands of Office.com prefab templates by simply going to File/New.  Choices range from Daily Work Schedules to Event Planning; College Accounting to Retirement Planning; Wedding Budgeting to Garden Planning; and much, much more.  You will probably be able to find a template to fit nearly any need you have, whether business or personal.

In addition to all the terrific prefab templates, you can create your own for your unique work environment. For instance, let’s say you work in an accounting department and you prefer to use the Currency option for formatting your worksheets. You can set this up manually each time, or you can utilize the custom Templates feature found in any remotely recent version of Excel.

A Suggested Approach for Our Accounting Professional:

1.   Open a blank worksheet in Excel

2.   Go to the Styles gallery on you Home ribbon

3.   Right-click the Normal style and choose Modify to display the Style options

4.   Click the large Format button, and make the new formatting choices you desire

Once your number (as well as any other changes) format changes are made, simply click on the File tab and choose Save As. Type in the File name of your choice (e.g. AccountingTemplate2016) and for the Save as type, choose Excel Template (*.xltx)

Now whenever you wish to create a new workbook, your new AccountingTemplate1 will be readily available under PERSONAL templates when you open Excel.

The Convenience of using Templates.  Save time, money, and unwanted stress today!