Best strategy for template in different colours?

[Katarina]

Customer wants a document template for reports. The reports will be printed and read both externally and internally.



The user shall be able to:

• chose from 6 different colours for the coverpage and some styles
• the list bullet (but not the bullet text) shall be green if the green theme is chosen, etc
• and also the background for a "textpad" shall be coloured. "Textpad" shall be used if the writer want to highlite something. (Solution: Frame or textbox)
• and some more

In short: There shall be six templates in either green, red, blue, etc. (Mixed colours are not OK)

Now: I have checked out Shauna (The Guru) and also googled around for more info.

My conclusion is:
Make six different templates (starting with one and reusing most of it for the others)
Front page picture put in the top margin of the FrontPage, covering all and then a new section for rest of the document.

I was hoping I could use colour themes... but the Frontpage picture wouldnt follow, right?

I do not think it is a good solution to ask the writer to include the FrontPage having to choose from six different.

Is there a better way?

An answer within an hour would be great, but also after that is worth a lot.

Looking forward to hear from you!

[macropod]

The most efficient way of doing this is indeed to have six different templates. As for the first page, you don't need a Section break; you can just use Word's 'Different First Page' layout, which allows content typed on the first page to flow over to subsequent pages. Only use a Section break if you don't want that, or you want all pages in the first Section to have the same 'look'.

As for:

An answer within an hour would be great

That's a bit much to ask. It was already 9PM here when you posted and I'm not on-line 24/7. I'm sure the same applies to other contributors too.

[Katarina]

Thank you!
I am very greatful and feel confident with the answer and solution.

Frontpage: The FrontPage shall allways have a picture , covering the whole page, in the background.
On "the layer in front" will be tables containing document data such as "Report name", "Date of publishing" and "unit who made this report".

Next page shall allways start with "table of contents"

Thank you for bonus information on the "first page topic". Section break seems to be the solution in this case

Sorry for asking for answer within an hour: I thought: if there is someone out there who might read this ..., the answer would have been great as an input to a meeting.

[macropod]

Originally Posted by Katarina

Frontpage: The FrontPage shall allways have a picture , covering the whole page, in the background.

Do be aware that most printers cannot output a page that's filled all the way to the edges. Typically, there's about 0.25in (6mm) all round that can't be printed on.

[Katarina]

Changed strategy when I finally understood how to work with themes. It is, as you know, a maintenance nightmare to deal with 8 templates. Now there will only be one template from which you can choose a frontPage and a colour theme. Next step is to include the picture in the theme as well. And to make the theme remain in the template...