One of the big advances in Microsoft Word 2007 is the inclusion of smart document elements such as the new cover pages and headers and footers. These not only make it easier to design elements required for multiple page documents but they also ensure these elements are easily replaced if you don’t like how they look. This issue, we’ll show you how to use these elements in your Word documents and how to use the new controls available through the Developer panel to make your own smart documents.
Smart document elements
A good place to get started with these new Word features is to select the Insert tab and to select the Cover Page option. Here you’ll see a series of custom designed cover pages that you can use for your Word documents. Select one of them and it will be inserted into your document. You can then type the various elements that are required by that particular cover page. For example, you might type your company name, the document title and subtitle, the author’s name and a date.
When this is done, you can easily change the cover page design without needing to retype the content because the text you have entered can be reused by the other cover page designs. To see this at work, with the cursor in the current cover page, click Insert > Cover Page and select a different cover page – the current cover page will disappear and be replaced by the new selection. Any of the elements that this cover page needs, such as title and author, and that you had already created for the previous one will already be in place. This gives you a lot of flexibility as you can experiment with different cover pages without the risk of losing your work.
These cover pages are linked to the currently selected Theme so you can choose Page Layout > Themes and choose a different theme to change how the cover page looks. In addition, you can select a different colour scheme by selecting the Colors dropdown list in the Themes panel and select a different theme colour combination. Photos and other images in the cover pages can also easily be replaced with your own images.
Other document elements that behave like the Cover Pages include headers and footers. From the Insert > Header dropdown list, select a header to add to your document. Any elements that you added to the cover page such as document title and that are also required by the header will automatically be added for you so that you don’t need to type them again. The same happens if you add a footer by selecting Insert > Footer and then choose one of the footer designs.
Custom document controls
There are also new controls shipped with Word 2007 that you can use to create your own smart documents. To see this at work, click the Microsoft Office button, choose Word Options > Popular Group and make sure the Show Developer tab in the Ribbon checkbox is enabled. This displays the Developer tab allowing you access to special controls you can use for your own documents.
To see these at work, create a simple memo template that can be used for typing interoffice memos. To add a control to help you enter the date, click where the date should be entered and, from the Developer tab, enable Design Mode. Then from the Controls dropdown list, locate the Date Picker. When you do this, a small element that reads ‘Click here to enter a date’ will appear in the document. With it selected, click the Properties button on the Developer toolbar and you can now configure the date format to use.
To create a control that includes a prompt for entering some text, click where the text is to go and select the Text control on the Developer tab. When you do, a control will be added to the document and it will read, ‘Click here to enter text’. You can select the prompt text and type over it with a prompt of your choice so you might type ‘Click and type memo recipient’s name’, for example. Click the control so it is selected, click Properties and you can then enable the ‘Use a Style to format contents’ check box and select a style to use to format the inserted text. You can add additional text controls wherever you need someone to insert text into the memo.
When you are done, click Design Mode to exit from Design Mode and to return to editing the document. Save the document as a template by clicking the Office button, choose Save As > Word Template and from the Favorite Links in the top left of the dialog, select Templates to ensure that your template is stored in your Word templates folder so it can be easily found in future. Type a name for your template and click Save.
You can now close the template document and test that it works by selecting the Office button, click New, select My Templates and click the template that you just saved to create a new document based on it. When you click ‘OK’ you will see the document appear on the screen. To enter the required information, click a prompt and, for example, to enter a date, select the date from the date selector dialogue. Wherever there are text boxes in the document you will see a prompt so you can click the prompt and type over it with the required information. If you configured the text box so a style would be applied to the text, then the text will display in that chosen style.
You can use these Word 2007 controls to create smart documents that make it easier for you and your co-workers to produce the documents you need to create every day at work.