About templates
What are templates?
All Office documents are based on a template. Templates are pre-set 'patterns' for documents. They determine things like:
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the size of the margins
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styles for headings, body text and bullets
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whether any text appears before you start typing ('standard' text).
The standard templates in Word automatically provide many of the layout features for NICE documents.
Using standard formatting and styles helps to ensure that NICE documents are consistent and look professional. Templates make laying out documents and formatting text as simple as possible. They save you having to remember details such as what line spacing to use, or what font size a level 2 heading should be. Many templates also contain standard text for a particular type of document, so it doesn't have to be re-keyed each time. This saves you time and reduces mistakes.
Where to find templates
The standard NICE template should open automatically when you create a new document in Word. It can also be opened manually from 'Blank templates' in the 'NICE Templates' folder on the Global drive (G:\Templates). The standard NICE template uses single line spacing and unnumbered headings, usually followed by numbered paragraphs. The 'Blank templates' folder also contains a version of the standard template with 1.5 line spacing.
Templates for specific documents such as guidance documents, implementation tools and so on are also saved in the NICE templates folder.
Use template files directly from the NICE templates folder, or create a shortcut on your own drive or folder. Do not copy them to your own drive or folder because they can become corrupted and you will miss any updates to the template.
To create a shortcut to a template:
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right click on the template icon in the Global drive
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choose 'Create Shortcut'
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save the shortcut in your personal file or on your desktop.