Customize Microsoft Office Word templates

This topic shows you how to modify Microsoft Office Word templates provided by Microsoft Office Accounting 2009. Most of the tasks you perform to customize your Office Word templates are performed inside Word. For more detailed information, see Microsoft Office Word Help.

In Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Office Word 2003, Office Word templates use a technology called Extensible Markup Language (XML) to provide you with the fields into which information about specific persons and transactions will be inserted. You do not need to know very much about XML to work with the templates, but because Word does use some terminology related to XML to describe tasks you perform, it is mentioned here. XML resembles HTML, the language used to author pages on the Web. Additionally, in this context, XML tags are generally the equivalent of fields.

Microsoft Word 2002 and Word 2003 Standard do not use XML for fields and are somewhat more limited in the customizing options that are offered.

All templates included in Office Accounting 2009 are read-only. After all modifications, you must save and rename the template.

The following table lists the tasks available in Microsoft Office Word versions that Accounting 2009 supports.

Word Version	Supported Actions	Template folder	Suggested search terms for Word Help
Word 2007 and Word 2003	Add, edit, delete tags Add line-item fields Add company logo and slogan Show table gridlines	Windows Vista     C:\ProgramData\ Microsoft\Windows\ Templates\Office Accounting 2009\Templates Windows XP     C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates\Office Accounting 2009\Templates	XML tags, smart document
Word 2003 Standard and Word 2002	Delete tags only Add company logo and slogan	Windows Vista     C:\ProgramData\ Microsoft\Windows\ Templates\Office Accounting 2009\Basic Templates Windows XP     C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Templates\Office Accounting 2009\Basic Templates	Template

Create a custom template

1. On the Company menu, click Manage Word Templates.

2. In the Manage Microsoft Office Word Templates dialog box, in the Template types list, select the type of form you want to create: invoice, sales order, quote, customer credit memo, customer statement, or purchase order.

3. Click Create.

4. In the Create New Microsoft Word Template dialog box, type a name for the custom template that you are creating.

5. To open the template as a blank Word document, click Create.

6. Create your custom form.

   Note: If you are using Word 2007 or Word 2003, search on "smart documents" or "XML tag" to find information about using the XML tags available in the Document Actions pane. If you are using Word 2002 or Word 2000, work with fields. To prevent unwanted changes to the template, you can make it read-only and protect the read-only status with a password.

7. When you are finished, save your document in Word.

8. Click Close to return to the Manage Microsoft Office Word Templates dialog box.

9. Click Close.

Modify a Microsoft Office Word template

1. On the Company menu, click Manage Word Templates.

2. In the Manage Microsoft Office Word Templates dialog box, in the Template types list, select the type of form you want to edit: invoice, sales order, quote, customer credit memo, customer statement, or purchase order.

3. In the Templates list, click the name of the template that you want to edit.

4. Click Modify to open the template in Microsoft Office Word.

5. Make changes to your form template.

   Note: To prevent unwanted changes to the template, you can make it read-only and protect the read-only status with a password.

6. When you are finished, save your document in Word.

   Note: If you edit one of the templates provided with Accounting 2009, you must save it under a new file name.

7. Specify a file name for the template, and then click Save.

8. Click Close to return to the Manage Microsoft Office Word Templates dialog box.

9. Click Close.

You can hide the XML tags by clearing the Show XML tags in the document check box.

The Document Actions pane is customized for each template, because you will normally include different information in different kinds of business documents.

Add, edit, or delete XML tags

Your Microsoft Office Word Help contains instructions for working with the XML tags in the templates. In addition, you can also modify documents by using the table editing functions in Word.

Use table gridlines for easier editing

You can make the document a little easier to edit by showing table gridlines, which won't appear when you print the document.

To show gridlines in Word 2007:

1. Click in the table.

2. Under Design, on the Layout tab, click View Gridlines in the Table group.

In Word 2003, gridlines are on by default. You can turn them off by doing the following:

• On the Table menu, click Hide Gridlines.

Add a logo to your document

If you have a graphics file containing your company's logo, you can add it to any Word template using one of the two following procedures.

To add a logo to your document in Word 2007:

1. Select the logo placeholder labeled YOUR LOGO HERE.

2. On the Insert tab, click Picture.

3. Navigate to the folder that contains your company logo file, select your logo file, and then click Insert.

4. Delete the logo placeholder.

To add a logo to your document in Word 2003 or Word 2002:

1. Click the logo placeholder labeled YOUR LOGO HERE.

2. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.

3. Navigate to the folder that contains your company logo file, select your logo file, and then click Insert.

4. Delete the logo placeholder.

Note: In Word 2002, you will not need to delete the drawing canvas manually.

Add a company slogan to your template

To add a company slogan to your template:

1. Click anywhere in the text block [Your Company Slogan].

2. Type your company slogan and format the text as you want.

Refresh the template list

Following any modifications to Office Word templates, save and rename the document. Return to the Manage Microsoft Office Word Templates dialog box and click Refresh. Your customized template will appear in the list of available templates.

Use the Line field to insert a complete table

The Document Actions pane has a tag called Line that you can use to insert an entire table into a template. The table contains columns useful to each type of template you want to create. You can edit, add, or delete columns using the table editing options in Word. The Line tag is located at the bottom of the Document Actions pane.