Differences between templates, themes, and Word styles

Templates are files that help you design interesting, compelling, and professional-looking documents. They contain content and design elements that you can use as a starting point when creating a document. All the formatting is complete; you add what you want to them. Examples are resumes, invitations, and newsletters.

To give your document a designer-quality look — a look with coordinating theme colors (theme colors: A set of colors that is used in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.) and theme fonts (theme fonts: A major and minor font that is applied to a style. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.) — you'll want to apply a theme. You can use and share themes among the Office for Mac applications that support themes, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For example, you can create or customize a theme in PowerPoint, and then apply it to a Word document or Excel sheet. That way, all of your related business documents have a similar look and feel.

Themes provide a quick way to change the overall color and fonts. If you want to change text formatting quickly, Word style (style: A combination of formatting properties — such as font, font size, and paragraph indentation — that you name and save as a set. When you apply a style to selected text, all the formatting properties in that style are applied.) are the most effective tool. After you apply a style to different sections of text in your document, you can change the formatting of this text simply by changing the style. Word includes many types of styles, some of which can be used to create reference tables in Word. For example, the Heading style, which is used to create a Table of Contents.

Templates contain content and design elements that you can use as a starting point when creating a presentation. PowerPoint has a few built-in templates that you can use immediately, or you have the flexibility to create your own templates. When creating your own template, you can use design elements such as theme colors (theme colors: A set of colors that is used in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), theme fonts (theme fonts: A major and minor font that is applied to a style. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), theme effects (theme effects: A set of visual attributes that is applied to elements in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), and backgrounds to set your design. You can also define your own custom slide layouts, modify the slide master to add text or images that you want to appear on every slide. After you have the content and design elements the way you want them, save the file as a template so that you and others can use it as a starting point in the future.

Choose a theme to create a unified look for your presentation by using theme colors (theme colors: A set of colors that is used in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), theme fonts (theme fonts: A major and minor font that is applied to a style. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), theme effects (theme effects: A set of visual attributes that is applied to elements in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.), backgrounds, and graphics that complement each other. When you create a new presentation, the default theme is automatically applied to your presentation, but you can change the theme at any time. You can use and share themes among the Office for Mac applications. For example, you can save a theme that you created in PowerPoint, and then apply it to a Word document or Excel sheet. That way, all of your related business documents have a similar look and feel.

Themes provide a quick way to change the overall color and fonts. If you want to change text formatting quickly, Word style (style: A combination of formatting properties — such as font, font size, and paragraph indentation — that you name and save as a set. When you apply a style to selected text, all the formatting properties in that style are applied.) are the most effective tool. After you apply a style to different sections of text in your document, you can change the formatting of this text simply by changing the style. Word includes many types of styles, some of which can be used to create reference tables in Word. For example, the Heading style, which is used to create a Table of Contents.

Templates are files that help you design interesting, compelling, and professional-looking documents. They contain content and design elements that you can use as a starting point when creating a document. All the formatting is complete; you add what you want to them. Examples are budgets, lists, and reports.

To give your document a designer-quality look — a look with coordinating theme colors (theme colors: A set of colors that is used in a file. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.) and theme fonts (theme fonts: A major and minor font that is applied to a style. Theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects compose a theme.) — you'll want to apply a theme. You can use and share themes among the Office for Mac applications that support themes, such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. For example, you can create or customize a theme in PowerPoint, and then apply it to a Word document or Excel sheet. That way, all of your related business documents have a similar look and feel.

Themes provide a quick way to change the overall color and fonts. If you want to change text formatting quickly, Word style (style: A combination of formatting properties — such as font, font size, and paragraph indentation — that you name and save as a set. When you apply a style to selected text, all the formatting properties in that style are applied.) are the most effective tool. After you apply a style to different sections of text in your document, you can change the formatting of this text simply by changing the style. Word includes many types of styles, some of which can be used to create reference tables in Word. For example, the Heading style, which is used to create a Table of Contents.