Microsoft Excel 2010 : Combining Data from Multiple Sources - Using Workbooks as Templates for Other Workbooks

When you have settled on a design for your workbooks, you can save one of the workbooks as a template for similar workbooks you will create in the future. You can leave the workbook’s labels to aid data entry, but you should remove any existing data from a workbook that you save as a template, both to avoid data entry errors and to remove any confusion as to whether the workbook is a template. You can also remove any worksheets you and your colleagues won’t need by right-clicking the tab of an unneeded worksheet and, on the shortcut menu that appears, clicking Delete.

If you want your template workbook to have more than the standard number of worksheets (such as 12 worksheets to track shipments for a year, by month), you can add worksheets by clicking the Insert Worksheet button that appears to the right of the existing worksheet tabs.

To create a template from an existing workbook, save the model workbook as an Excel template file (a file with an .xltx extension), which is a file format you can choose from the Save As Type list in the Save As dialog box. If you ever want to change the template, you can open it like a standard workbook and make your changes. When you have completed your work, save the file by clicking the Save button on the Quick Access Toolbar—it will still be a template.

After you save a workbook as a template, you can use it as a model for new workbooks. To create a workbook from a template in Excel, click the File tab to display the Backstage view, and then click New.

When you click New in the Backstage view, the top of the middle pane displays the blank workbook template, templates you have used recently, sample templates, and templates you created. Below that list is a set of template categories available through the Office.com Web site and a search box you can use to locate helpful templates on Office.com.

From the list of available templates, you can double-click the template you want to use as the model for your workbook. Excel creates a new workbook (an .xlsx workbook file, not an .xlst template file) with the template’s formatting and contents in place.

In addition to creating a workbook template, you can create a template to add as a worksheet within an existing workbook. To create a worksheet template, design the worksheet you want to use as a template, delete all the other worksheets in that workbook, and save the single-sheet workbook as a template. You can then add a worksheet based on that template to your workbook by right-clicking a sheet tab and then clicking Insert to display the Insert dialog box.

The Insert dialog box splits its contents into two pages. The General page contains icons you can click to insert a blank worksheet, a chart sheet, and any worksheet templates you have created.

The Spreadsheet Solutions page contains a set of useful templates for a variety of financial and personal tasks.

To add a spreadsheet from the Insert dialog box to your workbook, click the desired template, and then click OK. When you click a template, a preview of that template’s contents appears in the preview pane, so you can verify you’ve selected the template you want.

In this exercise, you’ll create a workbook from an existing template, save a template to track hourly call volumes to each regional center, save another version of the file as a worksheet template, and insert a worksheet based on that template into a new workbook.