I really like Pages, and even though I have Word and InDesign installed on my Mac, Pages is the first application that I turn to when I have to create something from a blank page. I find it less cumbersome than Word for word processing and much faster than InDesign for page layout. I thought that it would be fun to do an article about creating a letterhead template that can be used over and over.
I’m going to create a document that Tony Amenta, our new sales manager for Hammerhead and Chill Pill Audio, can use when he’s writing documents. First I’ll use the two logos that are already created. I’ll add all the things that Tony will reuse each time he sends a note—name, title, address, etc. I’ll put each element in a text box so that it can be easily modified in the future. I’ll place these where I want them on the page by dragging them around.
I want one of the logos to be more like a watermark, so I’ll change the opacity of that image to be about 40%. This is done in Graphic Inspector when the image that you want to modify is selected. I’ll also make a text box for the body of the letter and put some lorem ipsum text in it for Tony to modify later. I use this website to get the text: Lipsum.com.
Once I get the document the way that I want, I’ll choose “Save as Template…” under the File menu. You can save it anywhere, but it might be easiest to save to your “My Templates” folders so that it’s easy to find. To use your new template, choose it from the gallery under My Templates.
That’s it! You’ve made a template. Letterhead jumps to mind as one of the most commonly used templates, but anything that you find yourself writing over and over, just create a template!