Microsoft Office Online introduces Templates on Office Online — your resource for Office templates to help you quickly create high-quality Office documents. Every Office document is based on a template — a file that contains a variety of elements (such as text, graphics, and formatting). The templates available from Templates on Office Online save you time when creating documents, because the text and layout have been created for you.

Is it time to create or update your résumé? Need to send a cover letter as well? Do you need to send a collection letter or a response to a customer complaint? Beginning any of these tasks by staring at a blank screen can be difficult and time-consuming. Go to Templates on Office Online to find the templates to use as a starting point for these and hundreds of other tasks.

You can search for the type of document you need to create (for example, "résumé" or "collection letter"), or browse by category (for example, "Your Career" or "Letters to Customers"). When you find a sample of what you're trying to do, you can preview it right in your browser. Then, with the click of a button you can open the sample and make changes to it as a new document in Microsoft Word. You can customize the document by adding your specific information, such as company name, phone number, or e-mail address. For each sample you select and edit, Templates on Office Online also provides you with a list of related links in your Web browser. For example, the list may contain links to similar templates, Help topics about how to use the type of content you are editing, or services related to your task. Be sure to go back to Templates on Office Online after opening a sample document to see the list of links available to help you with your task.

The templates available from Templates on Office Online have been gathered from a number of credible sources of expertise. Templates on Office Online also provides you with Online Help topics to guide you through the process of finding the sample you need and editing it in your Office program.

To use the templates in Templates on Office Online, you must be using Office 97 or later, or Word 97 or later. Some of the templates work best in Word 2000.

Templates on Office Online was designed in response to input from Office users like you, and is updated regularly with new content based on the top requests we receive from you, so check back often to see what's new.

With Templates on Office Online you get the best of the Web — lots of content that is updated regularly based on your input. And you get the best of Office — the rich editing tools you are already familiar with and no frustrating fill-in-the-blank forms to complete your task.