Office 2010 theme deployment

Hello,

There doesn't seem to be a forum for Office questions so I have posted this here..

I have looked around for the answer to this question and I just want to clarify the best way to deploy a custom corporate theme (and make it the default theme) for all users across Word, Excel and PPoint.

From my reading, it appears that you create the theme, deploy it to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Document Themes 14, then create custom versions of Normal.dotm, blank.potx and book.xltx and place them in the startup folders for each application.

Is there a better way of achieving the goal of setting corporate colours across Office 2010 or is this it?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

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Answer

Rohn007

MVP
|
Article Author

That is the general idea.

But you should be copying them to the person Theme folder, not the office installation folder

Send the Document

Themes travel with the document

Have the recipient save the Theme, with current name, to their local HD:

1. Design tab

2. Themes group

3. Save Current Theme.

Or in Word

1. Page Layout tab

2. Themes group

3. Themes drop down

4. Save current Theme (use the default theme name)

Distribute the .THMX file

Copy the .THMX file to the standard Theme location:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Document Themes.

The exact location varies slightly depending on the OS.

I have just started investigating the theme concept. By far the most knowledgeable author I've encountered on the subject (yes, even better than MS articles) has been Vikie Sokol at RedCape. I got to see a free replay of her "Office Themes Webinar". Very interesting. Here is a link to a course she teaches:
https://jb121.infusionsoft.com/app/page/officethemeswebinar

Here is the site home page
http://www.redcapeco.com/Home.aspx

She made a point that I have not seen mentioned anywhere else. That if you are creating a theme for distribution, you should start it in PowerPoint, because PPT uses unique theme features that cannot be added to a theme started in one of the other applications.

Even more important than distributing the THMX files, you have to train your users to away from the "old school" standard colors they are used to, to the more dull/ho-hum colors in the themes. When applying font or background colors (NOTE: Highlights are STILL not part of the THEME design), they can no longer select the same bright primary colors, or even custom colors, they MUST use the color options presented in the theme color display.

.
*****
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As computer scientists we are trained to communicate with the dumbest things in the world – computers –
so you’d think we’d be able to communicate quite well with people.
Prof. Doug Fisher

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