One of the most exciting things about the changes in Word 2010 is the increased freedom it gives you to create content your way. Whether you want to create a simple mail merge letter, draft a 100-page training manual, produce a four-color annual report, or just post something simple to your blog, creating content is fast, and elegant, and flexible in Word 2010.
As you learned in Chapter 1, a number of the features new to this release are focused on improving your user experience. This means features have been streamlined, flexibility expanded, and new previews and options added so you can make the process more your own. You won’t have a lot of decisions to make as you prepare to put your content on the page—you can relax and let the creative process take the lead.
No matter which type of content you are creating, however, it’s a good idea to start with the end in mind. And that means having some concept of the design you want to create as you’re putting those words and pictures on the page. Word 2010 helps you out in the design department by including themes, building blocks, Quick Style galleries, and more. These elements help you choose the overall look and feel for your content and ensure that the various components you add—pictures, shapes, headlines, and text—are consistent in font, style, and color.
So what kind of content do you want to create with Word 2010? Chances are that Word has a template for it—whether you are sending a funny greeting card or a sophisticated journal article. From blog posts to annual reports, Word 2010 offers all kinds of tools, options, and styles to support you in creating the layout and look you want to achieve.
If you’re like many Word users, you might be comfortable diving right in and starting your document with a blank page. Word 2010 includes more templates than ever—some resident on your computer, and others available on Office Online. And what’s more, you can easily access, download, and modify user-generated templates that offer a style or layout that you’d like to use in your own documents.
Templates make great starting points if you are creating a document with a specific layout style. For example, if you want to create a newsletter that includes three columns at the top of the page and two columns in the bottom half of the page, your best bet is to start with a newsletter template and then tweak it to fit the design you’re envisioning. Modifying an existing template is much easier than creating a new design from scratch—and you might find that special features like sidebars, picture placeholders, and pull quote boxes add design touches to your documents that you want to keep.
To see which kinds of templates Word 2010 has to offer, click the File tab to display Backstage view and then click New. As you can see in Figure 3-1, the New tab shows you all the templates available on your computer, as well as many different categories for templates that are available on Office Online.
Figure 3-1. The New tab in Backstage view is where you begin to create a blank document or blog post, start a file from an existing file, or choose from a number of template options.
The New tab in Backstage view provides everything you need for the start of a new Word 2010 file. At the top of the center panel you see six choices:
Blank Document Opens a new document with no specific layout or design options
Blog Post Displays a new blog post document with space for a post title and content
Recent Templates Shows you any templates you have recently used in Word 2010
Sample Templates Displays a selection of templates in different styles and types
My Templates Opens the New dialog box, showing the Personal Templates tab from which you can choose a template you have added to Word 2010 as the basis for your new document
New From Existing Opens the New From Existing Document dialog box, in which you can choose the document you want to use as the basis for the new document
In the Office.com Templates area, you see a number of file and folder icons that point you toward additional templates on Office Online. Click the category of template you want to view. Some folders display additional folders offering yet more categories; others display your template choices.
If you don’t see a template that offers what you have in mind, you can click in the Search Office.com For Templates box and type a word or phrase describing the kind of template you’d like to find. Figure 3-2 shows the templates displayed when newsletters is entered in the search box for Office.com.
Note
To remove a template from the Recent Templates view, right-click the template and choose Remove Template. To clear the Recent Templates view, right-click in the area and choose Remove All Recent Templates. Keep in mind that when you remove templates from the Recent Templates area, you are only removing their appearance from that section of the dialog box; you are not permanently removing any templates stored on your computer.
You can preview the different templates available by clicking one and viewing the preview in the right side of the New tab. When you find a template you want to use as the basis for a new document, either double-click the template file icon or select a template icon and click the Create (or Download) button in the panel on the right side of Backstage view.
Note
Only customers running genuine, and properly licensed, Microsoft Office applications can download templates from Microsoft Office Online. For more information about the Microsoft Genuine Advantage, see the Inside Out tip titled “The Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage” in Chapter 4.
As you begin to explore the templates available in Word 2010, you will notice certain styles used for a variety of document types. For example, you might find the same template design—with colors, fonts, heading style, and backgrounds—used for newsletters, flyers, brochures, and letterhead (see Figure 3-3).
When you choose a consistent look for your documents, you help reinforce a certain image for your organization. The colors might convey a cool, modern tone or a warm, professional feel. Perhaps the fonts are light and playful or traditional and conservative. Whatever look you choose, using the same design on multiple documents helps the people receiving your materials to remember your company or department.
Figure 3-3. You can choose a similar template design for multiple documents to create a consistent design.
Tip
If you are planning a major redesign of your documents, consider pulling together a focus group so you can show a range of design samples to a number of people at once. Invite their feedback about how visually appealing the design seems to them, how easy the text is to read, and how memorable the design is in relation to your company or organizational brand. Be sure to use the feedback participants give you because these folks are representative of the prospective clients and customers you hope will be reading your document in the real world.
After you open the template in Word 2010, you might decide that you’d like to save the template to your own templates folder so you can use it again later. To save the template you’ve just downloaded, follow these steps:
Click the File tab to display Backstage view.
Click Save As in the Quick Commands list.
In the Save As dialog box, scroll to the top of the panel on the left until you see the Templates folder (see Figure 3-4).
Click the Templates folder, and type a name for the file in the File Name box.
Click the Save As Type arrow and choose Word Template (*.dotx), and then click Save.
This saves the template to your My Templates folder so you can access the template easily on the New tab in Backstage view. When you click My Templates in the Available Templates area in the center column on the New tab display, the New dialog box opens, displaying all templates you’ve saved to your computer (see Figure 3-5). Simply click the template you want to use and click OK to open a new document based on that template.
Note
In Chapter 4, you learn to customize your own templates based on existing templates you’ve downloaded from Office.com.
You can display a list of your most recent documents by clicking the Recent tab in Backstage view. This list can show up to 50 of the documents you’ve most recently opened, which makes it easy to find the file you want even if you can’t remember the drive or folder where it’s stored.
You can pin a document to the recent documents list by clicking the little pushpin icon to the right of the file name. This pins the document to the top of the recent documents list so it’s always there when you need it. (File names will slowly make their way to the bottom of the list as you open additional documents, but a file name will not be removed from the list if it is pinned.) You can change the status of a file on the recent documents list by right-clicking the file and choosing the command you want from the context menu that appears (see Figure 3-6).
To control how many file names appear in your Recent Documents list, on the File tab, click Options and then click Advanced. On the Advanced tab in the Word Options dialog box, find the Show This Number Of Recent Documents option in the Display section and enter a value for the number of documents you want in the list. Note that although up to 50 recently opened documents can be displayed in the Recent Documents list, your screen size and display resolution might limit the actual number of documents that can be displayed.
Of course, if you aren’t sure which file you want to work with or want to choose among multiple files in a folder, you can use the good, old-fashioned Open dialog box. To display the Open dialog box, use one of these techniques:
Click the File tab to display Backstage view then click Open.
Click the Open button in your Quick Access Toolbar. (To add the Open button, click the More Commands button in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list and then click Open in the list on the left, click the Add button, and click OK to add the tool.)
Press Ctrl+O.
To use the Open dialog box, navigate to the file you want to open and double-click the file name.
Note
To open multiple files from within the Open dialog box, select files while pressing Shift (for a continuous selection) or Ctrl (for a noncontiguous selection) and then click the Open button.
You might also want to take note of the options available when you click the arrow on the Open button, such as Open And Repair, which can be used to attempt to open a file that’s been damaged or corrupted.
In Chapter 7, you’ll learn more about the various ways you can add text, files, pictures, and objects to your Word content. This section touches on the basics, however, so that you can add some of your own data to the new file you create.
The most elementary way of entering content is, of course, to type it. But beyond the simple hunt-and-peck method, you can add content to your Word document using any of the following methods:
Insert the contents of another Word document or text file. You can insert the contents of another document into the current document without copying and pasting by clicking the Object drop-down arrow in the Text group on the Insert tab and using the Text From File command. The contents of the selected document are inserted into the currently displayed document (and the originating document remains unchanged).
Use speech recognition. You can use speech recognition to dictate text into your Word documents (see Figure 3-7). Talking into a high-quality microphone—usually part of a headset designed for such purposes—and using a combination of your voice and the mouse, or keyboard, will obtain the best results.
Note
Speech Recognition is available as a part of Windows 7. To begin the process of training Windows 7—and therefore Office 2010 applications—to recognize your voice and receive voice commands, On the Start menu, type Speech Recognition in the search box. Click Windows Speech Recognition to get started.
Handwrite content using the mouse or a stylus. If you have handwriting recognition software installed or if you are using a TabletPC, Word 2010 can recognize handwriting you enter with your mouse or a stylus. When you use handwriting recognition, you can retain your written marks, create drawings, draft equations, or configure Word 2010 to interpret your handwriting and display the information as typed text.
Note
For more information on adding content to Word 2010, see Chapter 7.
If you’ve spent any time working with Word, you know that most documents require some editing. Chances are that your documents are the result of entering information and then editing and formatting the entered text, images, and objects. This section provides information about selecting, copying, cutting, and pasting text; using the Clipboard; and undoing, redoing, and repeating changes—in other words, some of the common tasks you’ll perform in Word 2010.
As a more advanced Word user, covering methods of selecting text might seem like old hat to you, but bear with us. A little refresher—especially when some techniques are now easier than ever—is good for the soul.
Many of the editing tasks you undertake in Word begin with the selection of text. In fact, you can speed up most text modification tasks by mastering precise selection techniques. You can select text in a variety of ways:
Note
Learn more about selecting text with the purpose of modifying styles in Chapter 11.
Note
You can access a couple of key text selection options in Word Options in the Advanced section under Editing Options. You can specify whether to automatically select paragraph marks when you select paragraphs (the Use Smart Paragraph Selection check box) and whether to select entire words when you select part of one word and then part of the next word (the When Selecting, Automatically Select Entire Word check box). Both text selection settings are activated by default.
Table 3-1. Common Methods for Selecting Text Using the Mouse
Table 3-2. Keyboard Commands for Selecting Text
Keyboard Command | Selects |
|---|---|
F8 | Turns on Extend Selection Mode; press twice to select a word, three times to select a sentence, and four times to select the document; press F8 once and then the Enter key to select by paragraph, or press F8 once and then the period (dot) to select by sentence |
Ctrl+Shift+F8+arrow keys or mouse button | Vertical or horizontal blocks of text beginning at the insertion point |
Esc | Turns off Extend Selection Mode (text will remain selected) |
Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow or Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow | From the insertion point to the beginning of a word or end of a word, respectively |
Shift+Home or Shift+End | From the insertion point to the beginning or end of the current line, respectively |
Shift+Page Up or Shift+Page Down | One screen up or down, respectively, beginning from the insertion point |
Ctrl+Shift+Home or Ctrl+Shift+End | From the insertion point to the beginning of the document or end of the document, respectively |
Ctrl+A | Entire document |
No matter what kind of documents you create in Word 2010, copying, cutting, and pasting are probably among the features you use most often. Word 2010 includes a new feature that’s tailor-made for people who paste content regularly: Paste with Live Preview. Now you’ll be able to paste content the way you want it to appear—choosing whether to apply the formatting of the copied text, take on the formatting of the surrounding section, or paste the text as text only.
Note
The paste options available depend on the type of content you’ve copied or cut. If you’ve selected a picture, chart, or diagram, for example, the paste options available for those objects will be different from the paste options available for text.
To use the Copy and Cut functions, select the text you want to manipulate and then choose one of the commands listed in Table 3-3. The table also lists the Paste tools you’ll use after you’ve copied or cut content to the Clipboard.
Copying and pasting data has always been an easy way to reuse content you created previously, but one drawback in previous versions of Word was that pasting the content into your document sometimes produced unexpected results. Sometimes the new content appeared in the format you wanted; other times it took on the format of the section you were pasting into.
Paste With Live Preview not only gives you additional controls that help you decide how you want the pasted information to appear but actually enables you to preview the content in the document. This means you can choose paste, point to the paste option you want, and see how the information will look in your document before you click to complete the paste operation.
To use Paste With Live Preview, follow these steps:
Copy or cut the information you want to paste into your document.
Click to position the cursor at the point you want the content to be pasted.
Click Paste, which is in the Clipboard group on the Home tab. The paste options appear.
Point to each paste option and preview the information at the cursor position.
When you see the paste option you want to use, click it, and the paste operation is completed.
You can change the information after you paste it by clicking the Paste Options button that appears beside the pasted content and choosing the option you want (see Figure 3-8).
Note
To ignore Paste Options after pasting, simply continue to work within your document or press Esc—the Paste Options button will quietly disappear until the next time you paste content.
To turn off the Paste Options button, on the File tab, click Options and then click Advanced. In the Cut, Copy, And Paste options, clear the Show Paste Options Button When Content Is Pasted check box.
There are actually two Clipboards used by Word 2010, the system Clipboard and the Office Clipboard. (For a distinction between the two, see the Inside Out tip entitled Inside Out: The Office Clipboard and the System Clipboard.) The Office Clipboard can store up to 24 items—including text, objects, and graphics—which means you can copy or cut 24 elements from various applications without losing data in the digital abyss.
Note
Keep in mind that if you copy item 25, the first item you copied to your Office Clipboard is removed.
You can display the Office Clipboard to see all the different items stored there by clicking the dialog launcher in the Clipboard group on the Home tab.
Further, the Office Clipboard task pane provides an easy way to see which Clipboard item contains the information you want to access, as shown in Figure 3-9. You can click an individual item to display a content menu from which you can paste the item into the document or delete the item from the Clipboard.
Thank goodness for Undo and Redo in Word 2010. No matter what you’re working on in your document, when it comes to editing text, you have ample opportunity to change your mind—not only can you undo edits you’ve recently made, but you can also redo undone edits and even repeat an action if you need to. Most likely, you’ll use the Undo command more frequently than the Redo and Repeat commands, so the next section introduces that feature first.
With the Undo feature, you can undo one or many changes made to a document during the current session—in fact, you can revise up to 1,000 actions in the current file. To undo one or more actions, use any of the following methods:
Click the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar or click the arrow and display the Undo list and click the action you want to undo. (If you don’t see the action you’re looking for, scroll through the list.) Note when you undo an action in the list, you also undo all the actions that appear above it in the list.
Press Ctrl+Z or Alt+Backspace to undo the last action.
Note
Though the past 1,000 actions are retained, there might be still be times you encounter a message that you aren’t able to undo a current action. If you’re a little apprehensive about moving ahead without the Undo safety net, you can take precautionary action. One easy approach is to simply perform the “risky” action last so you won’t lose your current Undo list until you’re sure you’ll no longer need it. Another workaround is to copy the element you want to perform the action on, paste the information into a blank document, perform the desired action on the copied version of your information, and then copy and paste the modified information into the original document. Using this method, you can ensure that if the action doesn’t go as planned, your original document remains intact.
The default Redo button on the Quick Access Toolbar is a combination of two commands: Redo and Repeat. When you create a new document you will see the Repeat command but as soon as you undo an action, you automatically activate the Redo command. The main role of the Redo command is redo an undone action before you make any further changes. The Repeat feature is fairly self-explanatory—clicking this command repeats the last action you performed. For example, if you applied color or a border to text, you could use the Repeat command to apply the same formatting. To use the Redo or Repeat command you can perform any of the following actions:
Click Redo on the Quick Access Toolbar immediately after you’ve undone an action—before you’ve made any other changes.
Press Ctrl+Y or Alt+Enter to redo the last undone change.
Not everyone is born with design talent. Some of us can easily see how colors and patterns work together. We know how much shadow to use for our pictures. We know which fonts convey the tone we want our text to communicate. But, admittedly, some of us are clueless when it comes to document design.
Knowing how to put together a document that looks good and communicates an air of professionalism and confidence is an important part of making your point, whether you’re writing a business plan, sharing a new organizational chart, or putting together a training manual. The look and feel of your document says a lot about its content, and that’s where Word 2010 themes come in.
Word 2010 themes offer a coordinated look for your documents that you can apply with a single click. Every document you create in Word 2010 is assigned the Office Theme by default, but you can choose a new theme from the Themes gallery, which assigns a specific color scheme, font collection, and set of styles (which controls shadow, 3-D effects, and more) to your document.
Tip
Now themes are available throughout Office 2010, which means that you can use the same theme—with the same colors, fonts, and styles—whether you’re creating a document, e-mail message, database report, PowerPoint presentation, or Excel worksheet.
The best way to understand Word 2010 themes is to experiment with them a little bit. You’ll find the Themes gallery in the Themes group on the Page Layout tab. When you click the Themes arrow, the Themes gallery appears, offering a collection of looks you can apply to your document (see Figure 3-10).
Figure 3-10. The Themes gallery offers a palette of design choices that you can apply to your Word documents.
You can preview the themes by hovering the mouse over the different selections. You will notice the theme changes in your document clearly if you have headings, body text, pictures, hyperlinks, and perhaps other elements such as lines or shapes. When the theme characteristics are applied to the content of your document, you can easily see the differences from one theme to another.
You can choose a theme from the gallery or modify the settings individually, changing the color, fonts, or effects. The controls for the individual elements are found to the right of the Themes tool in the Themes group:
You’ll find various tips throughout this book on how to continue to integrate Theme elements in your documents. For more in-depth information on Themes as well as how to create and customize your document with them, see Chapter 4.
The colors that are included as part of the theme you select will show up in various places throughout Word 2010. For example, when you click the Font Color tool in the Font group on the Home tab, the color palette shown in Figure 3-11 appears. As you can see, the colors shown at the top of the palette come directly from the theme you selected. When you choose one of these colors for your text, the color is tied to the theme; if you later change the theme applied to the document, the color of this text will change. You can also choose a color from the Standard Colors section if you want the color to remain the same no matter which theme you choose.
Figure 3-11. As you hover your mouse over the colors in the color palette, a ScreenTip provides more information about the Theme element.
Each color palette has 10 columns of coordinating colors. The first four colors are for text and backgrounds (two dark colors and two light colors), and the additional six colors are for accents. The first row provides the main colors for the Theme; the additional rows provide five variations of the color, starting with the lightest tint and ending with the darkest shade.
Each theme includes two fonts: one font is used in headings and the other is used for body text. When you click the Font tool in the Fonts group on the Home tab, for example, the theme fonts appear at the top of the fonts list (see Figure 3-12).
Similar to the way Word handles colors and themes, if you want the font to change when you choose to apply a different theme to the document, use the Theme fonts found in the Theme Fonts section at the top of the font list. If you choose to use a font other than the ones shown in the Theme Fonts list, that font will remain the same if you change the theme at a later time.
The theme effects that are applied automatically when you choose a specific theme in Word 2010 control attributes, such as line style, fill, shadow, and three-dimensional effects. If you add pictures, pull quotes, SmartArt, charts, or shapes, the shape effects are added to those elements and change the way they appear on the page. Figure 3-13 shows various effects that go along with the different themes you can apply to your documents.
Figure 3-13. Theme effects control line, shadow, and three-dimensional effects for objects like shapes, pictures, and SmartArt.
You’ll notice these theme effects when you click an object in your document and choose, for example, Shape Effects on the Drawing Tools Format tab or Picture Effects on the Picture Tools Format tab.
Years ago I had a sign hanging on my then-cubicle wall: Save frequently and often. The publishing company I worked for at the time used a mainframe computer that was almost the size of a small room—and around 3 P.M. every day the server seemed to get sleepy. You never knew when the system would crash and all your work on your current document would be lost.
Thankfully today’s technology is more reliable—and smaller—than that. But the warning still holds. Saving your file is as important as it ever was. Nobody wants to lose good thoughts, touching paragraphs, well-phrased copy, or inspiring marketing material. Re-creating documents we’ve already done once is agony.
Word 2010 helps you out in the Save department, both by preserving files you might have forgotten to save and by making it easy for you to save files where and when you want to save them. Some of the new Save features in Word 2010 include a tool that enables you to recover unsaved files and the ability to save directly to your server, workspace, or SkyDrive account online.
Tip
Before other authors can access and work on the files you save to a shared space, you must have given them the necessary permissions to access the file and have posted the file to a SharePoint Workspace or Windows Live SkyDrive account. You’ll find out more about sharing files and co-authoring documents in Part IV.
Saving your document in the same location with the same name is easy. Simply follow any of these procedures:
Click the File tab to display Backstage view and then click Save.
Click the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Press Ctrl+S.
You can take advantage of the simplicity of the Save procedure. Whenever you’re about to take a break, press Ctrl+S as you start to roll your chair away from your desk. Or, when your phone rings, click the Save button as you reach for the receiver. Saving your work regularly helps you avoid major data loss headaches when you least expect them (because, as everyone knows, system crashes or disasters usually strike at the most inopportune times).
The Save As dialog box appears whenever you save a new document or when you choose Save As in Backstage view or press F12. This makes it possible for you to save an existing document as a new file or in another location.
Figure 3-14 shows the Save As dialog box in Windows 7. Note that you can add tags and author names as well as save a thumbnail with the file.
Caution
Keep in mind that including a thumbnail image when you save a document in Word 97-2003 format increases the file size and has been known to cause instabilities in a document.
You also have the option of saving your file to your Windows Live SkyDrive or SharePoint account when you click Save & Send in Backstage view. On the Save & Send tab, you can select where you want to save the file, as shown in Figure 3-15.
Figure 3-15. On the Save & Send tab in Backstage view, you can choose where you want to save the file you create in Word 2010.
Depending on the location you select, you might be asked to sign in with your Windows Live account, log on to the SharePoint Server, or take further action to prepare and post your file.
Note
At times, you’ll want to set up a folder to contain a newly created file. You can easily create a new folder during the Save procedure by clicking New Folder on the toolbar of the Save As dialog box, or right-clicking an empty area of the file list and choosing the New, Folder command.
You can save Word 2010 documents in a variety of file types, which can be convenient if you’re saving a file for someone who is using an application other than Word or if you’re creating HTML, Portable Document Format (PDF), XML Paper Specification (XPS), or XML documents.
With the co-authoring and SharePoint Workspace integration in Word 2010, you can set up your SharePoint sites to work just like another folder on your system. That way you can seamlessly save and open files from the SharePoint folder as you would any other folder you regularly use.
If you currently have access to a SharePoint site, you can select the site in the Save As dialog box and save the file directly to that location. Click File to display Backstage view, and then click Save As. On the list at the left side of the dialog box, scroll down to SharePoint Sites. Click it, and then click the site in the right pane that reflects where you want to save the file (see Figure 3-16). Choose the file type, enter a file name, and fill in the tag and author information as needed; then click Save. The file is saved to your SharePoint site.
Figure 3-16. If you currently have access to a SharePoint site, the site will appear as a folder choice in the Save As dialog box.
Tip
You can also set up Word 2010 to save directly to your SharePoint Workspace and Windows Live SkyDrive accounts. You’ll find more information about this in Chapter 21.
Of course, not all documents you create will require a lot of time and effort in the design department. The trick is to make sure the look and feel reflects what you want people reading your documents to remember about your company, department, project, or team.
Each aspect of your document communicates something unique and hopefully complementary to the whole, giving the document a consistent, effective look. For example, a well-designed document has the following characteristics:
The colors all work together well in a coordinated scheme that might communicate professionalism, creativity, energy, or dependability.
The font says something about the tone of your document—and by extension—your company. A light, playful font will communicate a light-hearted approach; a traditional font gives a business-like feel.
Headings in your document stand out from the text and help readers focus on the most important elements in the design.
Images should be high quality and large enough to break up the flow of text and provide visual interest.
If you use a multicolumn design, balance the columns and arrange the layout so the reader always knows where to look next; the design should help guide the reader’s eye down the page.
Each of the sections that follow provide examples of documents you can easily produce using templates available to you through Office.com. Once you create the documents, you can customize them with your own content and add quick styles, picture effects, and more to make the documents really shine.
Your company’s annual report is an important communication that lets those interested in your organization—perhaps shareholders, constituents, customers, or the general public—learn what your company accomplished in the previous year and how you are well-positioned to meet the challenges in the future. The annual report you design might be a substantial document—25 pages or more—that might include the following major sections:
Cover
Introduction
Mission Statement
Letter to Stockholders
History of Company
Management Report
Financial Summary
Year in Review
Projections for the Future
Financial Statements
Appendices
The design of an annual report is an important consideration because you want to convey excellence, professionalism, and clarity as you tell the story of your previous year. A well-designed annual report can give staff and stakeholders a boost of confidence in your organization and provide a sense of accomplishment for those who helped make the past year a success.
Word 2010 includes a number of report templates you can customize to use as the basis for your annual report. Figure 3-17 shows the Oriel report template. As you can see, the cover page design and the interior page have a different look but share similar colors, fonts, and style.
Your business letterhead says a lot about your organization through the colors, fonts, and layout you choose. Important elements on letterhead include:
Your company logo
A motto or tag line
Your company address, including your e-mail address and Web site
Graphic elements such as lines or background images
Extras such as quotes or a board of directors listing
The main idea for the design of your letterhead, of course, is to provide a sense of company identity while allowing the maximum amount of space on the page for the body of the business letter.
You can find letterhead templates in Word 2010 by following these steps:
Click the File tab to display Backstage view.
In the Office.com area on the New tab, scroll down to the Stationery icon and click it.
Click the Letterhead folder.
Click the letterhead template you want to open and then click Download.
Figure 3-18 shows the Oriel letterhead style that corresponds to the annual report style shown in Figure 3-16. As you can see, this letterhead offers a distinctive approach with the company name stretching down the right side of the page. The letter area is open and uncluttered, and the font is a traditional and professional style.
Another popular type of document you might need to create in Word 2010 can call for a slightly more sophisticated design. Newsletters typically include a multicolumn format, stretched over multiple document pages. A well-designed newsletter has the following design characteristics:
A recognizable and inviting masthead
Several short stories flowing across multiple pages
Alternative or mirroring page layouts
Multiple columns
Graphic elements such as shaded boxes, backgrounds, or borders to help readers see clearly where one story ends and another begins
Clear headings to help readers navigate through the document
A table of contents so readers can see clearly where to find various newsletter elements
Photos, pictures, or clip art to help add visual interest and break up text
An inviting and coordinating color scheme
A font that is easy to read and works well for the layout, not crowding too much text into a small space
Word 2010 includes a number of newsletter templates that offer you a variety of styles. You can choose from two, three, or four-column layouts. The newsletter templates include multiple pages to provide a variety of layouts you can customize with your own images and content. For example, the newsletter template shown in Figure 3-19 includes a two-column format with a table of contents, headlines, sidebars, photos, and more.
This chapter walked you through the early choices you’ll make as you create a new document, select a theme, and work your new document in various ways. You also found out about the changes to common procedures you’ll use when you are selecting, copying, and pasting content or opening and saving files. The next chapter does a deep dive into templates—what goes into them, how you can build documents based on them, and how you can customize templates to fit your own special tasks in Word 2010.