In the latest release of Office 2016 for mac (office 365), Microsoft have finally included the ability to customise the ribbon; a feature available for the Windows versions since Office 2007.

This means that all you mac users can now enjoy the benefits of our enhanced Word, PowerPoint and Excel templates.

Needless to say, Microsoft haven’t quite included all the functionality and some things within Word for mac still work in a slightly different way. So existing enhanced templates may need to be tweaked a bit, but at least the fundamentals are now in place, to allow us to support mac users as well as Windows users.

So, thank you Microsoft.

(did I really just say that out loud?!)

If you want to see how enhanced templates can help you, you can download demonstration templates from our website.

What could be better than having one of the most experienced document formatters in the industry on tap to support your bid?

Having both of them!

Kay Jones and Andrea Collier have joined forces at Checkpoint, to provide unparalleled bid formatting experience and Word expertise, creating a team of experts dedicated to helping you produce high quality, consistent bid documentation.

Each with over 15 years experience, supporting and coordinating large bids across multiple industry sectors (including civil engineering and infrastructure, rail franchises and transport, and defence), they provide a cornerstone of bid production support, in this high pressure environment.

So, whether you need:

• one off support for a specific bid
• ongoing support, as required
• improvement or development of templates
• training for your writers on how to use templates properly
• or just some advice on how to use Word more effectively and improve your documentation processes

We can help you out.

Just contact Andrea, either via LinkedIn, or the Checkpoint website and she’ll be happy to discuss any requirements you may have.

When somebody just makes a document look the way they want it to and then saves it as a .dotx file!

Just because a file is saved as a document template doesn’t mean that it is one. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve been sent a ‘template’ document with no styles set up, paragraph numbers typed manually, no automatic captions and no multi-level lists configured. Just a bunch of text with direct formatting and spacing within the ‘template’ achieved using tabs, the enter key and the space bar.

Document requirements vary greatly; there are simple documents which just need simple templates, then there are more complex documents that need more complex templates, but what they all need is styles. If you haven’t got any styles set up, you can’t call it a template.

Of course sometimes we see the opposite problem, where a template has been around for so long, and been tinkered with by so many different people, that they have hundreds of styles. This is equally bad, as nobody picking up the template to use it, will have any idea which styles they should be using, where.

The whole point of a template is to make creating documents easier and more consistent. Any template with more than 40 styles is pushing the boundaries. Ordinarily, in most circumstances, less than 30 is perfectly sufficient.

In addition to the most basic requirement of styles, most templates will also need or benefit from:

• paragraph numbering set up correctly (using list styles linked to heading styles)
• outline levels configured (if not using built-in heading styles)
• bullet and number lists (created using multi-level lists)
• table styles configured
• headers and footers (avoiding “same as previous” – it can only lead to heartache)
• automatic captions
• a table of contents set up

So, if somebody presents you with a so called template, and it either has no styles at all set up, or over 40, be wary! It may be worth considering a new one.