(The Office Hours blog is conceived and written by Microsoft employees -- for the times when only insider information will do.)
The templates linked in this blog might help to save your life — or at least help to eliminate complications — especially in emergency situations. When I started treatment for the blood clots I developed after having knee surgery, I was told that I should always have a list of medications and vitamins or supplements that I am taking with me. This way if I can’t tell the doctors what medications or vitamins I am taking, they can at least have the list, especially now that I am on blood thinners.
I was told to put the list in my wallet, preferably right behind my driver’s license, because my wallet is one of the first places emergency personnel look to see who I am and who my emergency contact is when I can’t speak for myself.
As a result, I created a Track Medicines and Vitamins template that you can use as a starting point for your list. I made the template about the size of a credit card that you can cut out and trifold (fold in thirds) to fit behind your driver’s license or other form of identification.
I was also told that I should make sure that my emergency contact has this list and the medical history for my family, because the family medical history can help to decide how best to treat me. As a result, I created a template for tracking family history. This template is a good starting point, but you might also want to check with your doctor to see what other information you should add.
Besides keeping a copy in my wallet and with my emergency contact, I also put the Word documents on my Mobile Device. If you have a Mobile device that uses Windows Mobile, you can do this too. Windows Mobile 5.0 and later supports the .docx file format introduced in Word 2007, and for Windows Mobile earlier than 5.0, you need to save the file in .doc file format (Word 2003 and earlier). You can also copy the documents to a thumb drive if you carry one of these devices.
-- Darla
(Visit the Office Hours blog)
Ever wish you could actually hear the Crabby Office Lady? Envelope yourself in her dulcet tones while receiving the communion of her tips and tricks? Of course you have – who hasn’t?
Well, you’re in luck: Every week Crabby records and publishes a 2-minute podcast. It’s an abbreviated version of her current columns; an audio preview of what you get when you settle down to read her weekly column.
Try out this sample of one of my most recent podcasts; then if you like what you hear, visit the Crabby’s Office Lady's podcasts and subscribe to the RSS feed.
Office Online Templates introduces our newest partner, Inkd -- a marketplace for fully editable Word templates designed by professional graphic designers from around the world. And we are marking this occasion by offering two unique Inkd design sets only available to Office Online Templates customers: the Technology consulting business design set and Professional services business design set.
Technology consulting business design set
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Professional services business design set
Also, an additional third design from Inkd, the General consulting business design set is now downloadable free from Office Online Templates.
General consulting business design set
Customize and print from any of these 17 templates available on Office Online. To see the larger variety of marketing templates available through Inkd, browse by type and industry on their website.
--Aaron
Whether planning a summer sale or a company picnic, Office Online Templates help maintain a business presence with both your customers and associates during the vacation season.
Consider the Summer Event Flyer (left) for Publisher which, via the software, is both printable and can be sent through email. There is also the Email Message: Summer Event Invitation (right) for Outlook.
Browse our template collections to develop a business event for any time of year: see the seasonal event, small business, and finance and accounting pages. And for those planning your next event (business or otherwise) consider these key-word searches when browsing through the Office Online Templates library: address books, advertisements, business cards, calendars, coupons, databases, envelopes, flyers, gift certificates, planners, postcards, and signs.
--Aaron
Technorati Tags: 2010 calendar
There is a wide range of 2010 calendars now available on Office Online Templates. New versions are recently available for older, popular styles such as the Lunar Calendar for Word. And different types of calendars, new to Office Online Templates, are now here such as the Quarterly Calendar for Publisher. Below is a clickable sample of these new templates, or select here to browse all calendars by category.
Excel:
OneNote:
PowerPoint:
Publisher:
Visio:
Word:
--Aaron
By Crabby Office Lady
You're a foodie and everyone knows and enjoys that about you. You can bring home the bacon (or is that pancetta?), fry it up in a pan (copper of course), and wrap it around some seared scallops... Have I got some fresh and juicy templates for you to devour.
Whether you are a fabulous cook or just like to watch the shenanigans on TV's Top Chef, food is an important part of your life. And in this age of multi-tasking, multi-jobs, and multi-activities for the kids, it's nice to slow down and actually enjoy a meal.
Today's column is all about food. As you know, I'm a big fan of the Office templates; whether you're the one who does the cooking at home or you're considering opening up a restaurant of your own, we have a template for that.
Meal planning at home
Thanks to a tanking economy, people are staying in more often and cooking for themselves, as opposed to going out. Although you might have found that sitting around with family over a home-cooked meal, talking about the day is less dreadful than you'd imagined, the meals themselves can be a source of stress: Where is that recipe? Do I have the ingredients? And, of course, am I up to cooking it?
Regarding the recipes: If you're like me, you have index cards and pages ripped out of spiral notebooks with recipes that you've gathered over the years. I'm sure your Hungarian grandmother would be mortified if she saw how you treat her cherished goulash recipe. You want to get organized, but how? Recipe cards are a good way to start.
Then there's all that planning and shopping and such. What if you had a grocery list? If you can make a one-time list of the things that you regularly buy and prepare, the trips to the market and the budgeting that goes along with them can become less of a hassle. Take a look at some sample templates below and then after your read this column, fly away and hunt for templates that speak to you.
Restaurants
Because people are eating out less, eateries have to work harder to compete for customer loyalty. If you own a restaurant, you've got to run a tight ship and make sure your menus are up-to-date and look great (please, no coffee cup rings). You can also let your customers know that you value them with surveys and gift certificates. Give the people what they want and they will come back. ("Billions and billions" of McDonald's consumers can't be wrong...can they?)
Opening a new restaurants
Money won't be tight forever...and the small businessperson stands a chance to thrive when things get better.
You've always wanted to open your own restaurant; why not now? If you're covered on the hard stuff (business plans, start-up expense spreadsheets, hiring, and so on), then you can just concentrate on the food. Here are some templates to help you get started:
More foodie templates
There is so much more to food than could ever fill just one column, but here are a few more templates to help fill your bellies.
And oh, if you think you can be Top Chef...you go for it! Bon appétit!
"In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear." — Julia Child
— Crabby
Demonstrate a professional, recognizable style throughout your business communications. We have design sets on the Finance and Accounting Template Collections page that include Invoices, Orders, Receipts, Packing Slips, Shipping Labels, and more.
Here is a example of the of Purchase Order, Invoice, and Shipping Labels from the Green Gradient design set:
To view more of these design sets , and many other helpful templates for Personal Finance, Accounting, Small Business, and Sales, visit the Finance and Accounting Template Collections page.
--Aaron
I've mentioned before that we love getting feedback from our users. Why? Because you give us great ideas - such as these six new templates that will help teachers let parents know what is happening in the classroom.
First, a class calendar to highlight special activities: 
A class newsletter:
Party sign-up sheet:
And don't forget the ever-important class snack schedule:
The class contact list:
And last, but not least, the class emergency phone tree:
Don't worry, as we get closer to the return to school, we'll remind you these templates exist, as well as all the other great templates in our Back to School Collections page. And for even more school-related ideas and information, don't forget our At School pages.
Meanwhile, enjoy your summer vacation.
--Nancy
This video series I started last year, Office Casual, returns to the wonderful world of templates. I wanted to know how much time it would take to use a template. Say, can I make a template in less than 90 seconds? You may not want to do it that quickly, but if I can do it in 90 seconds, you could take a few minutes, save a lot of time, and have a professional looking card.
On your mark, get set…..
Office Casual: How to make a business card in 90 seconds?
True, I picked a pretty simple card, there are more colorful and rich cards (and you can upload your own design, if you wish). You can find the business card sheets I used here. A previous Office Casual showed you how to make your own calendar. --Doug Thomas
Have you created a wonderful PowerPoint presentation that others find motivational or inspiring? Now's your opportunity to share it with others. Submit your entries to the Office Online "Create a Spark PowerPoint contest." Winners will be promoted online the week of July 6th.
Just think how inspiring it would be to see your work promoted on our site.
--Nancy
Note: Here is quick look at the easy steps for making sure your work is considered for the June 2009 Templastes Contest category.
Step 1: Click Submit your presentation to reach the “Submit a Template” form.
Step 2: Sign-in or create an account. (free Microsoft Live).
Step 3: Click Browse to find and upload your PowerPoint 2007 presentation file.
Step 4: Review and edit the title, and then click Next.
Step 5: Choose the contest category (shown below): Template categories > More categories > June 2009 PowerPoint Contest
Step 6: Give your presentation a description: (select Continue)
Step 7: Review your submission information, and if correct Accept Terms and Upload.
With Office's free templates, you can be a one-person library, book club, and archival society.
Think about how useful it would be to be able to:
- Organize and keep track of your books
- Help your kids make their own readings lists
- Create a lending library database — useful if you're a teacher or if you have a small library of your own and often loan out books
Luckily for us, Gentle Readers, there are dozens of templates on Office Online designed to help us organize, plan, and secure a little "me" time this summer.
A template for every reader
I have a whole lotta books. I often read them more than once and so, I like to have them around. Keeping track of them is another story.
Office Online has many templates relating to books and book collections — all free, of course.
A few examples to whet your appetite:
- Home reading log
- Book collection database
- Lending library
- Book manuscripts (when YOU’RE the writer)
- Bookmarks
For a list of the templates I know, love, and use the most, visit my column It’s all about the book.
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." — Mark Twain
--Crabby Office Lady
It's Teachers Appreciation Week - a good time to thank those people who have guided you, or your children, through the halls of knowledge, so to speak.
We like making life easier for teachers, and there is plenty of support for them across Microsoft, from our Innovative Teachers Network to the many resources available on Microsoft's Education network, including software discounts.
We know that teachers appreciate our many useful education templates, which we have featured both in the collections and on the At School site.
So, give back to your teacher - make their lives easier by pointing them to some free resources. And don't forget to say "thank you!"
--Nancy
Office Online Templates introduces our newest partner, SpreadsheetZONE, offering fourteen, free SpreadsheetZONE templates for use in Excel.
"SpreadsheetZONE is a repository of online Microsoft Excel® templates for personal or business purposes. And they offers a growing library in categories including dashboards, personal finance, education, and project management."
"SpreadsheetZONE also includes a feature to web-enable templates. For example, an Employee Evaluation Form template can be web-based allowing employees to enter online submissions to a collective database. Similarly, an Excel-based calculator can be replaced with an online calculator, allowing the organization to protect its proprietary calculation algorithm."
Read more on the SpreadsheetZONE partners page, and view SpreadsheetZONE templates on Office Online Templates. Also visit SpreadsheetZONE directly at SpreadsheetWEB and SpreadsheetLIVE.
--Aaron
We love customer feedback - and this collection of templates is a direct result of your feedback. You asked for it, so we have pulled together a collection of templates that should make your non-profit work easier and more efficient.
We think we've got you covered - from planning, fundraising, membership and communication, but we'd love to get your feedback by sending mail to ootcfdbk@microsoft.com.
And if you're working at a non-profit, you might want to subscribe to the two podcasts in which a volunteer from Cancer Lifeline discusses how the organization moved from using Excel to an Access database.
And while you're at it - if you have a template of your own that you think would be useful, feel free to submit it.
--Nancy
Today we welcome our guest blogger Richard Petti, from ModelSheet Software, offering this improved explanation for "spreadsheet template."
Some visitors to our template website aren’t sure what a spreadsheet template is. I searched the web for “define: spreadsheet template” and came up empty-handed. It would help if we could adopt and disseminate a standard definition of “spreadsheet template” to help people understand the advantages, and limitations, of various kinds of templates.
Here is our proposed definition: A spreadsheet template is a spreadsheet that is designed to be easily customized by users to match their situations. Users can change numerical data, rename items, and shift time ranges with little or no editing of formulas. Users can edit underlying formulas of the spreadsheet template, but that is usually harder. Common examples of spreadsheet templates include expense forms, sales reports and forecasts, cash flow analyses, financial statements, financial plans for a business, and asset valuation models.
Thank you, Richard! And be sure to check out these capabilities from ModelSheet Software's templates on Office Online.
--Aaron
