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If you've started using Word 2007, you've seen that the interface has been completely overhauled. Microsoft replaced menus and most of Word's dialog boxes with the new Ribbon. But the Ribbon wasn't the only change they added to help less experienced users. With the new Document Themes, you can easily create documents that look more professional because they have been designed to ensure you use complementary fonts and colors.
In this article, I show you how to use Document Themes, and how to customize a theme and save the new version so you can use it later.
To get started, prepare your document as you normally would. Be sure to apply the appropriate styles from the Style group of the Home tab on the ribbon. Since Themes are set to work with the styles used in a document, you need to choose a style for all your headings, sub headings, and so forth.
In my sample report, I've added the Heading 1 style to the report's main title and a subtitle style I like to the next levels of headings. But the report title Heading 1 style is a bit smaller than I'd like. So I manually increased the size of the font to 24. However, if you apply font changes directly to the title (as I did), rather than going into the style itself and modifying it, you need to make sure you also update the style.
To update your style, select the paragraph that you changed. In this case, I select the title.
Now right click the selected text. A shortcut menu appears. Scroll to the bottom and select Styles. When that selection expands, you see an option to Update [style name] to Match Selection. When you click this option, Word changes the style for this document. If I use Heading 1 elsewhere, the text will match. If you update a style that has already been used elsewhere in the document, the text with that same style applied instantly updates to the new look.
With Document Themes you can change the look of the styles being used with one click. In other words, if I don't like the default blue colors or fonts being used with the styles I've applied, I can change the document's appearance by choosing a new theme.
The Theme group is on the Page Layout tab of the ribbon. When you click the main Themes icon, a display appears that shows you all the built-in themes you have available. What's even cooler is that a wonderful new feature in Word 2007 will cause the document's display to change simply by moving your mouse over any of the themes displayed. This Live Preview is great because you don't have to select an item to see how it will change your document. Just move your mouse around the choices and your document temporarily displays the potential changes. When you see the one you like, click to select it.
But remember, you can always change it back. Or use one of my favorite moves. Press Ctrl + Z to undo what you just did.
I've decided to use the Opulent theme from the theme display shown above. As you can see in the image below, my document has now changed. The original blue color theme has been replaced by this new reddish-purple one. Additionally, the fonts have changed.
If I'm satisfied with this new look, I can leave it as it is and move forward to save, print and/or email my document, as needed.
However, suppose I like the overall look of the layout and fonts, but the color scheme isn't quite right. Within the same Theme group, I can click the Theme Colors icon to see many new color combinations that I can use.
Alternatively, maybe I like the color scheme, but the fonts aren't right. In that case, I can click on the Theme Font icon in the Theme group and choose from the many font choices. As you can see in the image below, the bolder highlighted font group is the one that is already in play…Opulent.
Using a third button in the Theme group, you can change the Effects that are applied to graphic elements you may have added to your document, such as Smart Art.
Again, each of these icons uses a Live Preview so make sure you keep an eye on the document because the look of it changes as you mouse over each of the choices.
If this document look is something that you won't be using again, there's no need to save it. However, if you've spent time getting it just right, you may want to save it so you can use it again in the future.
To save a theme, simply click the Save Current Theme option at the bottom of the drop down that displays when you click the large, main Theme button in the group. Give your new theme a name that will help you remember its purpose, such as Monthly Reports.
In this case, I called my saved theme, Computor Companion Sample. As you can see in the image below, when I mouse over the first custom theme that has been saved, it shows a sample of the look along with the name I gave it. If I want to apply this theme to another document in the future, all I have to do is click on this theme and I have a new document that looks just like the one I created for this article.
I previously created another custom theme called Dian Sample 01.
With one click on that theme, as you can see below, my reddish-purple document that had been using a sans serif font has now been changed to the colors and fonts I created several days ago. Now it uses green colors and a smaller, serif font theme.
With themes, even if you have no eye for design, you can quickly create documents that won't look thrown together by an amateur. Instead, they'll look like they were put together by a professional.
You can find many more themes from the Microsoft online gallery. This site is continually updated with new themes you can download for your own use. To access the online gallery, click the main Theme button. There, along with the option to save your theme, you'll see an option for more themes from Microsoft Office online.
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