TIP OF THE WEEK: Do You Use Templates?
I was reading last week (a great post by the way) a post on using templates in word. I love. love, love using templates (just ask my friend Brandie), I use them for everything, everything, everything... Emails, word documents, excel spreadsheets even some blog posts have templates.
Some people don't even know that they would benefit from creating templates. How do you know if you need to create a template?
If you know you have created the document, spreadsheet, email or blog post more than three times (and you know you will need it again)... YOU NEED A TEMPLATE.
It's all boils down to time people. Why take the time to re-create something over and over again? I keep a folder (in outlook, word, excel etc.) called TEMPLATES and I just OPEN the document, make my changes and hit SAVE AS...
Voilà... you're done. Not only can you save yourself a ton of time, but you can stay consistent about your documentation or delivery of information.
As my DH says... Life is good!
Some people don't even know that they would benefit from creating templates. How do you know if you need to create a template?
If you know you have created the document, spreadsheet, email or blog post more than three times (and you know you will need it again)... YOU NEED A TEMPLATE.
It's all boils down to time people. Why take the time to re-create something over and over again? I keep a folder (in outlook, word, excel etc.) called TEMPLATES and I just OPEN the document, make my changes and hit SAVE AS...
Voilà... you're done. Not only can you save yourself a ton of time, but you can stay consistent about your documentation or delivery of information.
As my DH says... Life is good!
Yes, yes, yes - I also love templates. My VA was a little shell-shocked at all the different things I have going on until I said, "but remember I have templates for everything so it takes literally seconds to do"
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Right on! I love templates and also macros. There is a fantastic software application I love called ActiveWords, where you make your own shortcuts for pasting blocks of text, opening certain folders or documents, or navigating to web pages. For example, you could just type "templates" anywhere you happen to be working on your computer, then press the trigger key F8, and your templates folder would open automatically. Or you could make a word shortcut for a specific template doc itself to open. I use the text substitution to make quick "form letter" emails for common responses to things like employment inquiries.
- Lorie
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