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How to Access Free Templates in Microsoft Word 2010

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If you've ever had to design something in Microsoft Word, such as flyers, calendars, signs, brochures, business cards, etc., then you've probably felt the frustration of not knowing where to begin. Microsoft Word comes with many features, but with so many to choose from, it's difficult to figure out where to begin and can be quite overwhelming.

With Word templates, you can literally save yourself hours of frustration and create professional looking documents with ease.

Any template not already included in Word can be downloaded for free with a few simple steps.

So lets go over a few steps and see just how easy it is!

How do I Access the Word Templates?

Look at the top of the Microsoft Word window and click the blue tab labeled File. Select New from the drop down list that appears.

This will open up the template manager, which is divided into two sections. The upper row (See Figure 1) gives you access to templates that are already loaded on your computer. These are templates that either came preloaded with Word, or are ones that have been downloaded or created.

Figure 1 - Upper Row (click to enlarge)

Upper Row Items:

Blank document - allows you to open a blank page (who wants to do that?).

Blog post - create blog posts which can be directly uploaded to blog sites such as Blogger or WordPress.

Recent templates - access templates that you've recently used.

Sample templates - view templates that came preloaded with Microsoft Word.

My templates - access templates that you've downloaded from Office.com within Microsoft Word.

New from existing - If you've saved template files to a folder on your computer, you can access them from here.

Adding New Templates for Free

Figure 2 - Bottom Section (click to enlarge)

The bottom section (see Figure 2) shows categories of available templates that can be downloaded for free from Office.com. To download a template, perform the following steps.

Click on a category you are interested in seeing templates for. (i.e. Newsletters) *

You'll see thumbnail-sized previews of the templates available under that category. To display a larger preview, click on a template and it will display on the right side.

If you decide to download the template, click the Download button directly underneath the large preview image on the right side.

The new template will immediately download to your computer and open, ready to edit!

* Note: You can also perform a search to locate new templates. Use the 'Search' box located above the list of templates.

I've Downloaded a Template, Now What?

So you've downloaded a new template and may see text that has nothing to do with what you actually want on there. In fact, the text may seem to be in a different language! Never fear, that's what they call 'Filler Text', which has the purpose of showing you what the finished product will look like.

Simply delete the text that's there and insert your own information. Remember, this is a template, not a finished product. It's up to you to customize it the way you want it.