As any good writer will tell you, the presentation of your work is just as important as the content. Therefore, if you want people to perceive your work as professional, you also need to make it look good.
Using Word’s built-in cover page feature, you can add a professional-looking cover page to any document.
The title page feature in Word certainly won’t turn bad text into a winner. However, with this feature you can give your documents a flavor so they stand out and look more like they were created by a professional than an amateur.
This is especially important for those who run a home office and for students who often have to transfer their work to someone else.
Add a cover page to a document
Open any document in Word and click the Insert tab on the Ribbon. On the far-left section of the Pages ribbon, click the button labeled Cover Page.
When you press the button, you will notice several things. First, Word has several cover page templates to choose from. Second, there is a menu where you can also remove the title page from the document.
This is an important feature so you don’t have to manually delete the page if you later decide to delete or redesign the current cover page.
Finally, you can also save the selection to the Title Page Gallery. This is useful if you’ve created your own title page and want to save it as a template for future reference.
Finally, you can head over to Office.com and find many more cover pages if the built-in isn’t enough. For now, let’s add a title page to an existing document.
Let’s say you’ve created a document to show to clients and want to make a professional impression. Of course, some cover pages are more appropriate than others. One title page suitable for such a document is the page labeled “Sideline”.
This title page is simple and immediately draws attention to the content of the document. It is also a good choice if you will be printing your document with a monochrome (black and white) printer.
After selecting the Sideline cover page, your document should look like the image below.
Once you’ve chosen your sideline template, it’s time to edit your cover page to indicate the content of your document.
Specifically, you can edit the Company Name, Document Title, Document Subtitle, Author, and Date fields. When finished, your cover page should look something like the image below.
You may be concerned about adding a page to the beginning of your Word document. However, just like any other page you can add, your page numbers, figure captions, footnotes, headers, footers, and other dynamic content will adapt to fit on the new page.
When you have finished editing the cover page, you can return to the cover page button and select a new template. All the information you enter will remain intact, so you can change templates on the fly and not lose your information.
If you later decide that a grid template is more suitable for your document, simply click the cover page button on the ribbon and select a grid template.
Your company name, document title, document subtitle, author, and date fields will carry over to the new template if they exist in the new template.
Using Word’s built-in cover page feature, you can give your business, student, or professional document a professional look. Just be careful to choose the appropriate cover page for the occasion.
A conservative title page is always a win-win for business, but a colorful and fun title page can help highlight the mood of your document’s content. Enjoy!
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