Microsoft Word Templates
Designing in Microsoft products can be tricky as they may not be as intuitive for design processes as we have come to expect from other software. This guide includes helpful tips to streamline the process as much as possible.
Design in Adobe Suite or Figma first and use the Watermark tool to copy the design into Word.
- To set a watermark click on the design tab and then click on watermark on the right-hand side. Select your design and make sure the scale is at 100% and the washout is unchecked.
If your design has elements at the top and bottom of the page that are meant to be unchanging use Headers and Footers to bring design elements into Word.
To create headers and footers go to the insert tab, click header or footer, and select blank.
Use the Header From Top and Footer From Bottom settings to size your header and footer. (This might change the position of your watermark but you can drag it back up into place.)
To bring in logos or other graphics click on picture from file and choose your file.
You will probably want to shift its position, to do this click on the picture format tab and select position, select one of the options in “with text wrapping” and then you should be able to place the graphic wherever you want.
You can create text boxes (found in the insert tab) to create any text elements and edit the text boxes fill and border in the shape format tab.
** If your design has multiple pages and the cover page is different from the rest of the pages, go to the header and footer tab by double-clicking the header on the page and checking the box next to “Different First Page”
You can then style your page using margins so the page content appears where you would like it to.
To save as a template go to File > Save as a Template.
Your computer should automatically want to save this in a folder called “Templates”.
When you want to use this template again it should show up as a thumbnail on your word home screen. Or you can go to File > New From Template
If you need to share the template with others to use they will open the file in Word and go to File > Save as a Template to save it into their own templates folder.