How To Create Effective Document Templates

04/05/2020 How to Create Effective Document Templates
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How to Create Effective Document

Templates
Aja Frost / Published May 12, 2016
Every week brings new projects, emails, documents, and task lists. How much
of that is completely di erent from the work you've done before?
Odds are, not much. Many of our day-to-day tasks are variations on something
we've done hundreds of times before.
Don't reinvent the wheel every time you start something new. Instead, use
templates—standardized les with text and formatting as starting point for

What brought you to us today?
new work. Once you save a separate version of the template, just add, remove,
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or change any info for that unique document, media
and TV new work
you'll have the
completed in a fraction of the time. Search engine Website Referral
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Templates work everywhere: in word processors, spreadsheets, project
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management apps, survey platforms, and email. Here's how to use templates
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in your favorite apps—and how to automatically create documents from a
template—so you can get your common tasks done faster.
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Why Templates?
Templates take time to build, and it's easy to wonder if they’re worth the
investment. The short answer: absolutely. Editing a template takes far less
time than formatting something from scratch. It’s the di erence between
copying and pasting some text, or retyping it.
That's not the only bene t: Using a template means you’re less likely to leave
out key information, too. For example, if you need to send freelance writers a
contributor agreement, modifying a standard contract template (instead of

writing a new contract each time) ensures you won’t leave out that crucial
clause about owning the content once you’ve paid for it.
Templates also guarantee consistency. Perhaps you send regular project

updates to clients or investors. With a template, you know the update will
always have the same formatting, design, and general structure.
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How to Create Great Templates

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Not all templates are created equal—and some

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template.
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Here are a few guidelines to follow. Print Email
First, templates should be comprehensive. It’s easier to delete information

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than add it in, so err on the side of adding too rather than too little.
Imagine you’re creating a template of your resume. You’d want to list in-depth
details about your responsibilities and achievements, so you'll have all the info
you need to apply for any job. You can always delete less-important notes later
on, but if it's not in the template you might forget it in the nal version.
Templates should also make customization areas clear. Give yourself visual
clues, like “Hi [NAME],” “Please hang tight until [DATE],” “You’ll be paid [X
AMOUNT] every 15 days,” and so on.
Some tools will automatically ll in these variables for you (more on that in a
bit). But if you need to ll in the data on your own, add some text that's
obvious and easy to search for so you can nd text that needs to be changed
without much e ort.
Finally, use a standardized naming system for templates. I add [Template] to

the end of the lename for each of my templates, such as “Blog Post
[Template]" or "Project Calendar [Template]". To get started on a document
simply search for "[Template]" in whatever tool I’m using. Just pick a way to
identify your document templates, and stick to it.

Templates are a great sidekick to e cient folder organization. Here's how to build a le and
folder organization system to e ectively organize all your templates and documents.
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Build Your Own Templates
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Let's dive in and cover how you can build templates for some common le
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types, like text documents, presentations, project checklists and emails. The
tools you use for these activities likely vary—you might use Word to draft
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documents, while your colleague uses Google Docs.
We outlined how to make templates in some of the most popular apps for
each category. If we didn't cover your favorite tool, no worries: these strategies
work on any platform. If you want to make a template in a di erent type of
app—perhaps to make notes in a CRM or to log data in a database builder app
—the general tips will still work there, too.
How to Create Templates for:
Documents
Spreadsheets
Presentations
Project Management
Surveys
Email
How to Create Document Templates
Creating standardized documents with the same typefaces, colors, logos and
footers usually requires lots of double-checking. But with templates, you only
have to do the grunt work once.

Just set up your structure and style in advance—and type in the sentences you
include in most documents—and you'll save time

Social whenever you
media TV create a new
le in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Then, withengine

Search tools like WebMerge and
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HelloSign, you can build customized documents

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customers
automatically.
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Google Docs
When you create new Google Docs document, do you default

Submit to the “blank”
option? If so, you’re missing out on hundreds of templates for resumes,

04/05/2020
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meeting notes, and reports.
These templates are accessible in two places. When you’re in your Docs
dashboard, clicking “More” will open up a gallery with around 30 choices. You
can also check out Google’s public template gallery, which has hundreds more
choices. Just click a template in either place to use it as the base of your new
document.
Most of these templates are professionally designed—so when you don’t have
the time to create a nicely-formatted document, they’re a good option.
But style and structure alone don’t add up to a truly powerful template. You
also want to mix in pre-written text so you can nish the document by lling in
a few blanks.
To make your own template in Google Docs, start a new “Blank” document—or
use one of the pre-made templates as a blueprint. Then, ll it with your

framework: your formatting, text styles, logos, default text, and anything else
most of your documents need.
For example, my posts tend to follow the same general formula, so I’ve created
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a blog post template. It functions as a general outline, and saves me from
ddling with styles when I need to focus on writing.
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Now, save the template so you can reuse it again. Google Docs saves new
documents automatically, but remember to give it a recognizable template
name. Next time you need to make a document with this style, just open the
template and click File ->Make a copy in the menu. From there, just customize
the copied document for your speci c needs.
And if you need templated spreadsheets, the same tips work in Google Sheets.
Become a Google Docs expert with our roundup of 40 Google Docs Power User Tips.
Build work ows with your
apps.
Microsoft Word Try Zapier Free
Like Google Docs, Microsoft Word is loaded with pre-made templates, from
meeting agendas and cover letters to business trip checklists.
However, Word also lets you save your own reusable templates as .dotx les
(rather than the classic .docx documents).
Say you’ve drawn up a business contract that you want to save for future use.
Just click File -> Save as Template. Next time you start a new document, your
template will appear in your gallery of options, alongside with Word’s pre-
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existing templates. When you want to make a new version of the contract,
create a new le, nd the contract template, andengine

Search click Open. Website Referral
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If you want to edit your template, select the Open dialog and change the Files
of Type option to Templates. Then, search for the template in question, open it,
and make your changes. From here on out, every document you create based
on that template will incorporate those changes.
Having a distinction between templates and documents is really useful, since it
protects you from accidentally modifying, deleting, or losing your master copy.
WebMerge
If you regularly send out contracts, agreements, invoices, forms, or reports,

chances are you’ve already created and saved templates for those.That
doesn’t mean you’ve circumvented all of the tedious work: Each time you send
a new version of the template, you still have to copy-and-paste names, project
info, dates, and other relevant details into your document.
Enter WebMerge. This tool will combine your template with unique data
automatically, so you’ll get customized, nished documents without tapping a

single key.
You can upload a template you’ve already made (Word docs, PDFs,
spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations are all fair game), or start from
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scratch using WebMerge’s online editor.
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To indicate a eld that needs to be lled in with new info, use {$fieldName} .
For example, {$email} or {$business_name} . Simple, right?
Then, choose where you want completed documents to go. Maybe you want
them saved to a Dropbox or Google Drive folder, emailed to you, or sent to a
tool where you can collect signatures.
Finally, select your data source. You could manually import data from a
spreadsheet—but that sort of defeats the purpose. Instead, use Zapier to set
up an automated work ow. Your document templates will be automatically
populated with data from another app—like a survey or e-commerce tool.
For example, if you use PayPal to run your online shop, you could use Zapier
to create a custom receipt for each customer. Or, if you still want to use
spreadsheets, just connect Google Sheets to WebMerge and new rows will be
turned into formatted documents in seconds.
Create Personalized Reciepts and

Use this Zap
Documents from PayPal with WebMerge
Create Personalized Documents from

Use this Zap
Typeform with WebMerge
Create Personalized Documents from

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QuickBooks with WebMerge
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Merge new Google Sheets rows with Podcast
Use this Zap
WebMerge documents
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See more Formstack Documents

Print integrations powered
Email by
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HelloSign
HelloSign
Many customized document templates require approval from a client,

employee, manager or partner. With HelloSign, you can painlessly collect
signatures from anyone—just upload a template, indicate where recipients
need to sign and add information, then send it o .
Want to make this process even easier? Use Zapier to connect your CRM, email
platform, survey tool, and any other apps, and build work ows that handle
your templates automatically.
For instance, I use Proposify to send proposals to potential clients. When a
client accepts my Proposify proposal, Zapier tells HelloSign to send my

standard freelance writing contract to their email address for signing.
Send HelloSign signature request to

Use this Zap
tagged Infusionsoft contacts
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Request HelloSign signatures via new
Search engine Use this
Website Zap
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Google Sheets rows
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See more HelloSign integrations powered by
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How to Create Presentation Templates

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Most of the same document template tricks apply to presentations: create a
base presentation with your general layout apply your style to the slides then
base presentation with your general layout, apply your style to the slides, then
duplicate the presentation and ll in the blanks each time you need to present
something.
Or, there's another way. If you often reuse the exact same slides in di erent
presentations—perhaps a slide with your business plan, company statement,

goals, or some other common elements—you can copy individual slides from
one presentation into another without sacri cing your presentation's design.
Here's a quick tutorial on swapping content in Google Slides (and don't worry,
this same trick works in Apple Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint's desktop

versions, too).
Google Slides
Google Slides is a good go-to for presentations, because it's cloud-based—

which means your templates follow you anywhere.
And just like Google Docs, it's pretty simple to start building. Just create your
core slides in a presentation, with their own unique style and template that t
the content. Then, when making a new presentation, open that core template
presentation, select the slides you want to use in the slide menu on the left,
and copy them.
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Now, just click in the slide picker on the left, and paste those copied slides.
They'll retain the original formatting by default, but if you want the slides to
match your new presentation style, just click the paste icon and select Match
Destination Formatting. Follow the same process for Keynote or PowerPoint.
Alternate Presentation Apps
Another option is to not worry so much about your presentation's formatting,

and just focus on the text, images, and videos in the presentation. There are a
number of apps that can turn plain text and images into a presentation in
almost no time, including:
Deckset and Swipe turn Markdown formatted text documents into

presentations, with pre-made templates
Evernote's Presentation Mode reformats your notes and web clippings into
basic presentations on the y
Slidebean chooses a theme for your presentation automatically based on
your pictures and videos
Prezi turns your content into an animated presentation—it's eye-catching,
though perhaps not time-saving
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With most of these apps, use the same tricks you'd use for creating document
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templates. Write your common points or presentation structure, then copy
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that document each time you need to make a presentation. All you'll need to
do is open that le in your text-powered presentation app—or copy the text
into the tool—and select a pre-made template design.
You won't get as customized of a presentation, but you'll save a ton of time.
Check our full roundup of the Best PowerPoint Alternatives to discover other great
presentation tools.
How to Create Spreadsheet Templates
Spreadsheets are like LEGO bricks: You start with a bunch of seemingly
random pieces, and turn them into complex structures. But unlike a tower of
blocks, spreadsheets don’t collapse if you swap out or remove an individual
component—so you can reuse and edit them endlessly.
That's why they make great template tools. Even better, creating a
spreadsheet template lets you apply the same conditional formatting to
multiple data sets.
The tips here work in most spreadsheet tools—so check out our roundup of the Best
Spreadsheet Apps for more options, along with some spreadsheet history and extra tutorials.
Excel
If you’re crunching large amounts of data, you’re probably doing it in Excel—
it's one of the most powerful and popular

Whatspreadsheet tools
brought you tofor
usgood reason.
today?
Luckily, Excel supports templates quite well, so creating new versions of large
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les won’t be a pain.
To make a template, open the workbook you want to convert into

Other a template,
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click Save As and give it a name. Then click the Save as Type box, just as in
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Word. You can save the le as an Excel Template, but if it’s got macros
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(automated action in the spreadsheet), choose Excel Macro-Enabled Template.
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Alternatively, you can modify one of the templates already installed in Excel.
To check out your options select “File ” “New ” and “Spreadsheet Solutions ”
To check out your options, select File, New, and Spreadsheet Solutions.
You can also take advantage of the existing templates on O ce.com. Once
you’ve found one, click on it to edit in Excel Online or download it to Excel.
If none of those t the bill, the Excel community has developed templates for
almost every purpose imaginable. Do a quick search for Excel template [use
case] and take a look at the results.
Learn more about Excel Online's features in our Excel Online review.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet tool that's built around templates. You can make
your own using an existing sheet as your baseline: Simply right-click its name
and choose Save as Template. The sheet’s column names, column types,
Connect apps. Automate tasks.
conditional formatting rules, and dependency
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media will be carried overdone.
TV Get more to
the template—along with its data and formatting if you choose.

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So, if you’ve got an expense report that tends to look pretty similar from
month to month, you can create a template with all your expenses
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tallied up. Then, every four weeks or so, you can make any necessary
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adjustments, and have a report in no time.

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Smartsheet also o ers an impressive gallery of pre-made templates that cover
everything from goal tracking to o ce relocation plans.
Once you’ve found the template you want, click on it and choose Use template.
Make it your own by adding data, changing the column names, applying your
own formatting, and so on. When you’re done, you can save the le as a
regular sheet by opening the Actions menu and selecting Save as New. Or, turn
that customized version into your own new template by choosing Save as
Template instead.
Smartsheet doesn’t count templates against your sheets total, either, so you
can store an unlimited number in any account.
Learn more about Smartsheet's features in our Smartsheet review.
What brought
How to Create Project Management you to us today?
Templates
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Using templates to start new projects doesn’t just cut down on setting up
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work ows—it also helps you leverage the processes that have Website
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in the
past. Other Podcast
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There are three strategies that work in most project management tools: Create
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a template project using built-in tools, copy an existing project to use as your
blueprint, or import a spreadsheet and turn that into a project. Here are
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examples of these strategies in some popular project management apps.
Trello
Trello is designed to break your projects down into groups called "boards",
which means it's the perfect tool for creating templates—but you'll need to
copy those boards to reuse them.
To make a template project, just create a new board, add the appropriate lists
and cards, then esh them out with the relevant attachments, project
members, and descriptions (if applicable). For example, if your coworker
always handles visuals for your blog posts, you could assign the Create
graphics card to him in advance and add template design les—now, every
time you use this template for a new project, he’ll already be assigned to that
task.

When you want to use this template, open the sidebar menu, choose More
then select Copy board. Social media TV

If you don’t want to go to the trouble of creating a brand-new board for your
template, simply copy an existing one. YouOther Podcast

can choose whether or not to carry
over the cards—a handy way to reuse an old project's list structure
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duplicating completed tasks. Print Email
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You could also create templates for speci c project stages rather than the
entire project. Say you o er a range of di erent digital marketing services.
Create a list for every service (like SEO Audit [Template]); then when you get a
new client, you can copy the lists for the services they’ve asked for into a fresh
Trello board.
Trello even lets you copy individual cards, so you can create a task template
with a checklist, attachments, and assignees. Then, to add new tasks with that
same set of checklists and attachments, just copy the card and ll in this task's
unique details.
For project template ideas, check out Trello’s Inspiration collection. You’ll nd
templates for business, productivity, lifestyle, and education designed by
What
people like Bu er’s Kevan Lee and Brit & Co’s brought
CEO Brit you to us today?
Morin.
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Learn how to organize your projects and life in Trello with our complete guide to automating
Trello.
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Asana
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There are two ways to make templates in Asana: start a new project and save
it as a template, or duplicate an existing project. Submit
If you go with the second option, you’ll want to change the sections and tasks
to make them more generic.
For templates, just open an existing project, click the dropdown menu at the
top-right of the main window, and select Use as a Template (Copy Project).
Asana recommends creating project templates for processes with ve or more
steps—either by reusing an old project as a template, or with a new project

designed just to be a template.
However, for processes with ve or fewer steps, you should create task
templates. As with project templates, just add a new template task, or
duplicate an existing task and modify it.
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Make your templates easy-to-access by creating a template tag. You can add it
to the appropriate tasks, then favorite your template tag. Now, all of the tasks
tagged template will show up in your left sidebar where you can easily
reproduce them when needed.
Learn more about Asana's features in our Asana review.
Redbooth
Redbooth comes with more than 40 tailor-made workspaces, for everything
from planning an o -site executive meeting to designing a new brand, logo, or
site. Choose a template, and it’ll be added to your Redbooth account where
you can customize it and start working.
What if you want to make your own template? Redbooth doesn’t let you copy
workspaces, so you can’t create a generic project and clone it (like you would
in Trello or Asana).
But Redbooth will convert spreadsheets into workspaces. You can make a
template in Google Sheets, Smartsheet, or Excel, then import it into Redbooth
every time you want to use it.
Here’s my “New Hire Onboarding” template in Google Sheets:
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And here’s what the template looks like once I imported it into Redbooth:
You can also import projects from Trello, Microsoft O ce Project, Wrike,
Basecamp, and Asana, so if you have existing templates in any of those
platforms, you can use those as well.
While you can’t duplicate workspaces, Redbooth does let you duplicate tasks.
Try creating a workspace speci cally for your template tasks so you can easily
nd them; when you’re ready to use one, open it and click “Copy & assign task”
from the right drop-down menu. Once it’s been created, move it to the
relevant workspace.
Basecamp 2
When it comes to standardized work ows, Basecamp has your back: rather
than copying existing projects, you can create endlessly reusable templates.
These templates live in a separate section from normal projects,

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them a cinch to nd (and guarantees you won’t

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To make one, go to your main dashboard, click Templates and select Create a
new template. Next, add discussions, to-do lists, and les. You can also add
team members, who will automatically be assigned to every project you create
from this template.
Streamline matters even more by adding deadlines. Basecamp will start the
timeline once you’ve launched a project—so if you create a task for “Day 7,”
Basecamp will schedule that task for one week after the project goes live.
Even better? You can set up a Zap so projects are automatically created from
templates when a speci c trigger happens: like, say, a new event is added to
your calendar, or a new item is added to your to-do list.
Create a Basecamp 2 project from a

Use this Zap
template when a Wufoo form is completed
Use Google Sheet rows to generate new

Use this Zap
Basecamp 2 project from template
Create a Basecamp 2 project from a

Use this Zap
template for new Harvest projects
See more Basecamp 2 integrations powered by

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The new version of Basecamp doesn't support templates yet, though it should be gaining a
new template tool later this year. Search engine Website Referral
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Active Collab is another project tool designed for templates. Just open your
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projects listing, and choose Templates, then click + New Template.
The app lets you preset tons of details, so you can immediately jump into the
real work next time you start a project. Choose which team members you want
to add to every version of this template, create tasks and task lists (with
relative due dates, so they’ll be based on the day the project goes live), set
discussion topics, upload images and les, and attach project notes.
Looking for another project manager? Check out our roundup with 50 of the Best Project
Management Apps, and look at the project management apps comparison spreadsheet to nd
one with the features—including template tools—that you need.
How to Create Survey Templates
Survey design is a blend of art and science. Once you’ve found a winning
combination of length, design, wording,What brought you

and formatting, usetoa us today?to
template
repeat your success again and again (not to mention, shave precious
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time
from the survey creation process).

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SurveyMonkey
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Figuring out which questions to ask your survey

Print respondents and
Emailhow to
frame those questions is really di cult—and if you don’t pull it o , your survey
results will be misleading and potentially useless. Submit
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That’s why SurveyMonkey o ers nearly 200 ready-to-use survey templates.
They cover all sorts of use cases, from customer satisfaction and employee
surveys to market research and website benchmarks, and are designed to
prevent bias in responses.
To create a survey from a template, log in and click + Create Survey in the
upper-right corner. Choose Start from an Expert Template, then nd the
appropriate template. Select “Use this Template.”
At this point, you can edit questions, add or delete them, and change the
design and display of the survey.
Once you’ve crafted a survey you’re happy with, you’ll probably want to use it
again. There are two ways to reuse surveys in SurveyMonkey.
First, you can make a clone. Click + Create Survey

What in the you
brought upper
to right corner,
us today?
choose Edit a Copy of an Existing Survey, and choose your de facto template.
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Enter a title for the copy of the existing survey. Then click Let’s go! to edit the
theme, questions, and settings.
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Alternatively, if you have a Platinum account and you’re the Primary Admin or
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Admin, you can add a template to the group library. Click Library in the header
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of your account, then + New Item. Choose an existing survey to make into a
template. Every aspect of the survey design will be included in the template,
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including all questions, the theme, logic, options, and images—so remember
to change anything that you don't want to include in the new survey.
Looking for a di erent survey app? Check out our roundup of the 20 Best Survey Builder Tools,
many of which let you copy surveys to use as templates like SurveyMonkey.
Wufoo
Form builder Wufoo splits its templates into two broad categories: content and
design. Begin by choosing the form, template, survey, registration, lead
generation, online order, or tracking template you’d like to use—then pick out
a color scheme using Wufoo’s CSS theme gallery. The result? A survey that
ful lls both your aesthetic and copy goals.
When you want to re-send a survey or send a modi ed version to a fresh

Whatyou
group, go to the “Forms” tab, nd the survey brought
want you
to toto us today?
reuse, and click
“Duplicate.” Wufoo gives the child form theSocial

same name as its parent,
media TV so make
sure to immediately rename it so you don’t get confused about which is which.
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In addition to template forms, Wufoo also supports templatingPodcast
text in forms.
In other words, it’ll dynamically replace a shortcut

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information
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user has entered in your survey. Print Email
To make a shortcut, you put the corresponding eld number in brackets:

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{entry:FieldX}.
For example, if the rst eld in your survey is First name, and the second is
Last name, you could create a con rmation at the end of your form that
reads:
Thanks for your time, {entry:Field1} {entry:Field2}.
If Jon Snow lled out the survey, his con rmation would read:
Thanks for your time, Jon Snow.
Nifty, right? Here are Wufoo’s step-by-step instructions.
Find other great form builder tools in our roundup of 14 of the Best Form Builder Apps.
How to Create Email Templates
Templates have changed the way I send email. I used to dread typing out
routine messages and would often put them o ; now, they’re the rst ones I
respond to, since the task has become so quick.
Here's how.
Gmail
Gmail users, did you know you could set up email templates? To activate Gmail
templates, click the Gear icon, select Settings, then choose the Advanced tab.
Halfway down the list, you’ll nd Templates.

What Click Enable,
brought youthen
tosave the
us today?
changes.
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Now you can set up your rst template. Create a fresh email, type
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out your
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template, then click the three dots in the lower right-hand corner of your
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“Compose” window.
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Choose Templates -> Save draft as template,Print

then give your template
Email a name.
Voila—you’ve made your rst ready-to-go message. Anytime you want to use
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it, open a new email, click the three dots again to access Templates and nd the
name of the template you want to use.
Make Gmail an even better email tool with our roundup of 30 Gmail Tricks, Tips, and Hacks.
Outlook
Setting up templates in Outlook takes just seconds. Create a new email (or
press Ctrl + Shift + M ), type in your email template text, and then click the
File tab. Choose Save as ->Save as le type, then select the Save as Outlook
template option and add a name to your template.
Using templates is a little less direct: click New Items -> More Items -> Choose
Form. Then, in the Look In: box, choose User Templates in File System. Highlight
the template you want and open it, then customize and send the template
email.
If there are a few templates you use all the time, you could instead add them
to your Quick Steps ribbon. Open the ribbon, click Create new, then type a
name for the template (for instance, “status update template,” or “meeting
con rmation template.”) Then, choose New Message, click Show options and
insert the subject line and text of your template. Next, select Finish. Now the
template is available to use in a single click from the ribbon in the future.
MailChimp
Crafting a beautiful email for your customers and contacts takes a lot of time
and energy, so having go-to templates is a huge productivity boost. Email list
tool MailChimp includes the tools needed to make beautiful email templates
that will be automatically customized for your

Socialreaders.
media TV

You can access templates at any time by clicking Templates in the upper
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navigation bar. To make a new one, select Create Template.
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MailChimp’s templates come in two avors: Basic (blank layouts) and Themes
Print Email
(pre-designed and pre-formatted templates).
If you’re creating an email campaign around informationSubmit

from a di erent site,
you can use an AutoConnect template (found under “Themes ”) Once you
you can use an AutoConnect template (found under Themes. ) Once you
connect an AutoConnect template to another application (options include
iTunes, Twitter, Facebook, SurveyMonkey, Eventbrite, eBay, and Etsy),
MailChimp will pull in the relevant info and images.
For example, let’s say you’re promoting an Etsy product. Set up an
AutoConnect template with Etsy, and MailChimp will pull in your header
image, pro le info, and link to your shop.
If you regularly publish blog posts, you’ll nd the RSS-to-email templates really
handy. Pick a style, tell MailChimp which RSS feed you’d like to use, and decide
on a cadence (daily, weekly, or monthly). Now your subscribers will
consistently get fresh content, and you don’t have to lift a nger.
When you’re ready to send out a campaign, click the “Campaigns” tab and
choose “Create Campaign.” Once you’veWhat brought

selected you to
the details ofus today?
your campaign
and entered the Design stage, you’ll be able to choose a template.

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Copy,
delete, and rearrange your text and picture blocks to make a unique version of
your template, or leave it as is. Then, send it o .
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MailChimp also lets you duplicate individual campaigns. Go back

Radio toofyour
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Campaigns tab, nd the one you want a copy

Printof, click the drop-down
Email arrow,
and choose “Replicate.”
Submit
Want to use email templates in other newsletter tools? Take a look at our guide to the 25 best
email newsletter apps—most of them support templates as well.
Use Text Expanders to Build Templates in Any App
It’s awesome when you’re using an app that supports templates (like all of the
options in this round-up), but what about when you’re using an app that
doesn’t? Thanks to text expanders, you can insert templates in a matter of
seconds—no copying and pasting required.
A text expansion app lets you set up keyboard shortcuts for basically any
content you’d like.
For instance, since I’m always getting emails

Whatfrom PR reps
brought youasking me to plug
to us today?
their clients’ products, I’ve set up a polite “no thank you” template using the
Social media TV
shortcut “no;”.
Every time I type “no;”, that string is replaced by:

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Hi (name),
Print Email
Thanks for reaching out! Unfortunately, I don't think I'm a good t for this
article. If you could remove me from your email list, I'd really
Submitappreciate it.
Best,
Aja
Not only are text expansion apps great for email templates, they also work
well for social media posts, answers to frequent requests or questions,

meeting agendas, standard proposals, and project outlines.
If you want to be still more e cient, take advantage of macros. Macros are
essentially baked-in shortcuts, but they change depending on the context.
For instance, if you wanted your template to include the current month, day,
and year, you’d insert the “date” macro. Then, every time you used that
speci c template, the text expansion app would automatically pull in the
correct date.
There are also macros for time, images, and clipboard (whatever you copied
last will be pasted in).
That's just a quick intro to text expanders. To learn everything you need to
become a text expander expert, and to nd other great text expander tools,
check out our Text Expander Guide.
Create Templates for Any App With Automations
Want to use templates even easier in any app—even those that don't support
templates? If your app is one of the 650+ tools supported by automation tool
Zapier, you could have templated documents, invoices, projects, emails and
tasks created automatically whenever they're needed.
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Say you want to create a template in a project management app like Insightly,
or need template notes for your next outline in Evernote. Or perhaps you want
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to send a template email reply automatically without having to open Gmail.
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Zapier can help.
Print Email
First, you'll need something to trigger the automation. Perhaps you have a
form people ll out to order your product. That'd be your trigger, one that
Submit
could send them an email or start a project. Or perhaps you want to send
template emails, and like adding contact info to spreadsheets. A new row in
the spreadsheet could be the trigger.
Another way to trigger the automation is a schedule. Say you need to start
new projects every month, make invoices each week, and do the same 3 tasks
each day. Zapier's Schedule tool can run on any schedule you want, and
trigger your automation to run every day, week, or month.
Once you've got a trigger, it's time to make that template. With apps like
Basecamp 2 or WebMerge, you could simply make a new project or document
from a template. With everything else, type your template into the Zap
template. You can add standard text, pull in names and other details from
your trigger app, and tweak any of the settings in your integration. Then, test
the integration and turn it on, and your template will be made every time it's
needed.
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Print Email
Submit
Just think through the documents, tasks, and other things you have to create
with templates, and see how many of them also could get made whenever a
trigger event or scheduled date occurs. Automate each of them with a Zap,
and you'll save even more time with your templates.
Learn more about how to connect your software and automate work ows with Zapier's Multi-
Step Zaps.
Template Everything Your Most Important Things
Once I discovered the amazing power of templates, I started templatizing

everything. Then, of course, I ended up with tons of templates I never used
again.
To avoid my mistake, I suggest watching for patterns in your work—once you
nd one, create a template for it. For example, if you realize you’ve sent three
meeting con rmation emails in an hour, make a meeting con rmation
template. If you notice your schedule for the team retreat looks really similar
to last quarter’s schedule, set up a team retreat template.
By following this approach, you’ll end up with the perfect amount of
templates.

What are your favorite ways to use templates? We'd love to hear your template
tricks in the comments below! Social media TV
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We’re hiring — work remotely

How to Create Effective Document

of that is completely di erent from the work you've done before?

we've done hundreds of times before.

templates—standardized les with text and formatting as starting point for

completed in a fraction of the time. Search engine Website Referral

copying and pasting some text, or retyping it.

contributor agreement, modifying a standard contract template (instead of

Templates also guarantee consistency. Perhaps you send regular project

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How to Create Great Templates

Not all templates are created equal—and some

Here are a few guidelines to follow. Print Email

First, templates should be comprehensive. It’s easier to delete information

AMOUNT] every 15 days,” and so on.

Finally, use a standardized naming system for templates. I add [Template] to

identify your document templates, and stick to it.

What brought you to us today?

Search engine Website Referral

How to Create Templates for:

How to Create Document Templates

What brought you to us today?

include in most documents—and you'll save time

le in Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Then, withengine

HelloSign, you can build customized documents

When you create new Google Docs document, do you default

option? If so, you’re missing out on hundreds of templates for resumes,

use one of the pre-made templates as a blueprint. Then, ll it with your

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Microsoft Word Try Zapier Free

meeting agendas and cover letters to business trip checklists.

create a new le, nd the contract template, andengine

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Having a distinction between templates and documents is really useful, since it

If you regularly send out contracts, agreements, invoices, forms, or reports,

info, dates, and other relevant details into your document.

automatically, so you’ll get customized, nished documents without tapping a

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For example, {$email} or {$business_name} . Simple, right?

tool where you can collect signatures.

populated with data from another app—like a survey or e-commerce tool.

turned into formatted documents in seconds.

Create Personalized Reciepts and

Create Personalized Documents from

Create Personalized Documents from

See more Formstack Documents

Learn more about WebMerge's features in our WebMerge review.

Many customized document templates require approval from a client,

signatures from anyone—just upload a template, indicate where recipients

need to sign and add information, then send it o .

your templates automatically.

For instance, I use Proposify to send proposals to potential clients. When a

client accepts my Proposify proposal, Zapier tells HelloSign to send my

Send HelloSign signature request to

How to Create Presentation Templates

presentations—perhaps a slide with your business plan, company statement,

this same trick works in Apple Keynote or Microsoft PowerPoint's desktop

Google Slides is a good go-to for presentations, because it's cloud-based—