Communications Templates

As a technical writer, Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker template generation and maintenance comprise the bulk of my design efforts. As with any technical documentation template, the majority of the design elements focus on the text. Any useful technical document relies on effective graphics, but readable text and all of the visual design features that contribute to readable text are the most important aspects of a usable technical documentation template.

Font choice, spacing, character styles, paragraph styles, white space and table formats are some of the text-based issues that must be considered during template design for technical documentation. Unfortunately, visual design elements such as color schemes, HTML code, CSS and video are rarely relevant to Word/FrameMaker technical documentation. My template design knowledge is confined to word processing software only, without much experience in Web templates or templates in other applications. In an effort to enhance my template design skills, I developed a suite of communications templates for a fictitious company, kr3c. kr3c is based in Princeton, New Jersey and specializes in environmentally-sensitive technology programs.

The kr3c templates I developed are available here (select Document Design>kr3c Templates link).

A note or two about the design of each template appears below:


Business Card
All kr3c employees are required to order business cards. The template was designed in Microsoft Visio and incorporates the logo and color scheme of kr3c. The logo is blue; the green elements of the business card reflect the environmental conscience of the company.



Professional Letter
In order for kr3c to communicate with potential customers and vendors in a formal manner (e.g. not via email), kr3c needed a formal letter template. The Microsoft Word template is fairly straightforward, includes the marketing-approved logo and employs a readable font (12 point Times New Roman).



Services Invoice
Any company that sells goods and services requires a standardized invoice template. I used Microsoft Excel to develop kr3c’s invoice template. As I do not have extensive experience with Excel, I required additional development time to organize the formulas used to calculate the Line Total values. Again, the invoice uses the standard kr3c logo and blue color scheme, providing a sense of unity to all of the marketing collateral.



Documents and White Papers
kr3c research and design teams will need to write a substantial mix of customer-oriented documentation and internal-only documentation. The Microsoft Word template allows kr3c departments to easily write all types of documentation. The title page includes the kr3c logo, document title/subtitle, publication date, part number (05-xxxx-xx) and company address. Each page in the template includes a kr3c Confidential Information footer. This footer will be present in internal documentation, but removed when documents are made generally available to the public. The intent is to protect kr3c intellectual property. The template contains a Change History table along with the front matter (TOC, LOF, LOT) that is critical to documentation navigation. Several paragraph styles are embedded in the template, giving document authors the freedom to format text accordingly (Headings 1-4, Appendix Headings 1-4, bulleted list, numbered list, body text, figure/table captions etc.) All text, except for captions and Headings, text is rendered in simple Times New Roman 12 point font. The font is easily read, installed by default on most computers and easily converts to PDF. The font for captions is 12 point Helvetica and the font for Headings is Arial. All of these fonts are plain, vanilla fonts that were deliberately chosen to avoid distracting from the content. The audience for kr3c technical documentation is interested in document content and the ideas the content conveys; elaborate and flourishing typefaces have their place in template design, but they’re not needed in kr3c technical documents.




PowerPoint Presentations
In order to establish a presence in the marketplace, kr3c will need to present ideas at various conferences and customer sites. The look and feel for all of these presentations should be consistent. Consistency informs customers that kr3c employees are on the same page. Much like the documentation templates, the goal of kr3c PowerPoint presentations is to convey valuable information. The visual aspects of the PowerPoint template should not detract from the content. As a result, I designed a minimalist template that uses marketing-approved kr3c colors and a generic white background. The initial slide contains a placeholder for the presentation title and the presenter’s name. The footer for each slide provides a placeholder for the date of the presentation and the kr3c confidentiality statement (again, to protect IP). The second slide contains a Rev. History table with an 05-xxxx-xx part number placeholder (identical with the part numbering scheme in the documentation template). All successful presentations begin by outlining the agenda. An agenda slide is third. For any post-presentation follow up questions, the final slide lists information for contacting kr3c marketing or visiting the kr3c Web site.