Creating Documents

You can create a new document with the Project Gallery or with the New Blank Document command.

To create a blank document

1.	If the Project Gallery is not displayed, choose File > Project Gallery (Figure 10) to display it (Figure 3).
2.	In the Category list, select Blank Documents.
3.	In the Preview area, select Word Document.
4.	Click Open.

Or

Press .

Or

Click the New Blank Document button on the Standard toolbar.

A blank document based on the Normal template appears (Figure 14).

Figure 14. A blank document window based on the Normal template. Note that this document is displayed in Normal view; you can click the Normal view button at the bottom of the window to switch to this view.

Tip

• The Blank Documents category of the Project Gallery (Figure 3) enables you to create other types of Word documents, including Web pages and Word Notebook files. I cover Web pages in Chapter 18 and Word's Notebook Layout view feature in Chapter 13.

To create a document based on a template other than Normal

1.	If the Project Gallery is not displayed, choose File > Project Gallery (Figure 10) to display it (Figure 3).
2.	In the Category list, select a category. or In the Category list, click the triangle beside a category to display subcategories and select one of those subcategories (Figure 12).
3.	In the Preview area, select the icon for the template you want to use (Figure 15). Figure 15. Select the template you want to use.
4.	Click Open. A document based on the template that you selected appears (Figure 16). Figure 16. A new document based on a template.
5.	Follow the instructions in the template to replace placeholder text with your text.

To create a document based on a recently opened document

1.	If the Project Gallery is not displayed, choose File > Project Gallery (Figure 10) to display it (Figure 3).
2.	Click the Recent button at the top of the window. The view changes to display recently opened documents (Figure 17). Figure 17. By default, the Recent button displays documents you've opened today.
3.	If necessary, select an option in the Date column so the file list in the middle of the dialog changes to show the document you want to use.
4.	In the file list, select the document you want to use. A preview of the document may appear in the Preview area (Figure 18). Figure 18. Select the document you want to base the new document on.
5.	Click Open As Copy. The document opens as an untitled document (Figure 19). Figure 19. Although this document might look exactly like the original, it is indeed new.

Tips

• Creating a document based on an existing document can save time when creating a document that is almost identical to one that already exists.

• Because the new document opens in an untitled window, it is virtually impossible to overwrite the existing document with the changes you make to the new document.