IT Communications

User Guide: How to customize the Rutgers IT report templates

The Word document templates were designed by the IT Communications team to help assist with the development of Rutgers IT reports and similar documents. By standardizing formatting elements such as headers, subheaders, body text, and other visual components, the templates help maintain a cohesive look and feel with Rutgers branding elements. Users are encouraged to utilize the built-in styles and customization areas to personalize their documents without compromising the overall design.

Customizable elements
Users can easily edit the following parts of the template:

• Title – Located at the top of the document. Replace the placeholder text directly with your desired title.
• Current date – The date is automatically generated and updates to the current day when the document is opened. You can manually adjust it if needed by clicking on the field and editing it.
• Department title – There is a designated placeholder to enter your department name. Simply click the text area and replace it with your department title.

Table of contents
The table of contents on the second page is dynamically linked to the gray and red subheaders in your document. If you change these headings or add new sections to your document, update the table of contents by:

• Clicking anywhere inside the table of contents.
• Going to the References tab in the navigation bar/ribbon on the top.
• Clicking ‘Update table.’
• Choose ‘Update entire table’ to ensure both titles and page numbers are correct.

Styles and formatting
The templates use pre-defined styles for key formatting elements to maintain consistency. These styles include:

• Main header
• Gray subheader
• Red subheader
• Bullet points
• Sub bullet points
• Hyperlinks
• Body text

To view or apply these styles:

• Go to the Home tab in the navigation bar/ribbon.
• In the Styles group, click the small diagonal arrow in the lower-right corner (this opens the full Styles Pane). From there, you can:
  • Apply any of the available styles to your selected text.
  • View which style is currently applied to any part of your document.

Tip: You can also just copy and paste over the placeholder content in the template — the styles will remain intact as long as the formatting is preserved.

Footer title
You can edit the document title in the footer by:

• Double-clicking the footer area.
• Replacing the placeholder with your custom title.
• Clicking outside the footer to return to the main document.

Saving your customized document
Once you’ve completed your edits:

• Save the file with a new name to avoid overwriting the original template.
• Use ‘Save As’ to create versions as needed.