| You can think of a template as a big bucket in which you store the things you need to work on a certain type of document. In addition to any formatting and text that you enter directly into a template, it can contain any combination of these items: -
Styles ” You learned about styles in the last hour . They provide a convenient way of applying consistent formatting in your documents. -
AutoText entries ” AutoText entries are covered in Hour 12, "Handy Editing Techniques." In a nutshell , AutoText entries are a way to enter blocks of text automatically. They are a great way to avoid typing the same text over and over in multiple documents. -
Toolbars ” Toolbars, as you know, enable you to issue commands with a click of the mouse. In the preceding hour, you found out how to create a toolbar for your styles. If you've experimented a bit, you may have discovered that you can use the same basic steps to create toolbars for any commands you use frequently. -
Macros ” In its simplest form, a macro is a recording of keystrokes that you can play back whenever you want. You typically create macros to perform repetitive tasks that would be time-consuming to perform "manually." They are also discussed in Hour 12. The default template, Normal, is unlike other templates in that it is loaded globally . This is a geeky way of saying that the styles, AutoText entries, toolbars, and macros stored in the Normal template are available to all documents that you create, even if you base them on other templates. In "Loading a Template Globally" at the end of this hour, you learn how to load other templates globally so that you can use the items they contain with other documents.  |
