MARCH 2020 PCWorld 139TEMPLATE TIPS: CREATE
CUSTOM STYLESHEETS
The default stylesheet in MS Word is called
normal.dotx. It’s not a good idea to alter this
stylesheet because, later on, it could result in
some unwanted effects. It’s best to create
custom stylesheets for each custom
template. For example, the normal.dotx font
is Calibri, paragraphs are left aligned,
spacing is 1.15, etc. Heading 1 is Cambria 16
point, etc. You can change these settings
manually throughout your document without
saving them to the normal stylesheet, and
before you save the document as a template.
Once satisfied, use those custom
settings for your new stylesheet, which
could be named something similar to the
template name. For
example, if you’re
creating a custom
brochure template, you
might name it and the
stylesheet Brochure1.
Then future brochures will
be much easier to design.- Choose the Home
tab, then click the small
arrow in the bottom right
corner of the group
called Styles. From the
drop-down menu, click
the New Styles button
(bottom left). - In the popup dialog
Create New Style from Formatting, enter the
name of the style, such as Brochure1. - Next select Paragraph from the Style
Type field list, which affects the entire
paragraph, as opposed to a Character style,
that affects only the characters inside a
paragraph. - You can choose to make the style
based on another style, such as the Normal
style, one of the Header styles, or No style. If
you plan to use most of the formatting
features in the Normal style except a few
differences, then base it on the Normal style.
If the custom style will be completely
different, then choose the No style option. - Under Formatting, select a Font and
Size, then choose a Font Color such as
Create a Combo Box Control so users can select options from a list.