Excel Templates are available from the main Microsoft Office Templates website and a number of other sources that list free and paid for options. Templates for Microsoft Excel can be found for purposes such as invoices, payslips, calendars, receipts and a large range of financial spreadsheets using formulas and charts.
How to Use an Excel Template
Download a Template
Firstly go to the site where you want to download an Excel Template. For example we can use the Office Templates website and select Excel from the Favorites by app section.
In this section there are a number of favorite Templates for Excel shown, ranging from an Activity Costs Tracker, to a Simple Meal Planner.
Selecting one of the templates open it in its own page with a screenshot, a short description and the option to Download.
Select the Download button and save the template in a convenient place on your hard disk. The Template can be renamed to something you will remember rather than the default. For this example we will use the "Blue sales receipt". The Template will be saved with the .xltx file extension.
Open the Template
Open Microsoft Excel and if the welcome window is not open then select from the menu at the top "New from Template...". This will open the main start screen for Excel.
Select the Open button and browse to the location on your hard disk that the downloaded template was saved to, and select the template.
The Template will open in a new window as a new document. Note the info box that appears giving information on how to start and what info is required to be entered. Many of the fields that require filling in will have a pop up information box to describe what needs to be entered.
Save as a New Document
The first thing that should be done is to save the new document as a separate file and not the template. Go to the File menu and select Save As..., then select a location on your hard disk, and a separate file name from the template and click save. You can now go on working on the new document without changing the template file.
Create a New Template
There is a simple way to save either the edited template that was downloaded, or another Excel sheet, as a template ready to be used to create standard documents.
Edit the Template you downloaded and change a few headings just to illustrate the process. Go to the File menu and instead of Save or Save As there is an option to Save as Template... Select this option and a dialogue box will open giving some save options. Here you can select the location to save the template, the file format (.xltx for a standard Excel Template, .xlt for an older version, and .xltm for a macro-enabled version if needed), and the option to use a password to open or modify.
