Win with a dream theme

You've dotted every i and crossed every t. Wait, does anyone do that anymore?

You get the idea. It's down to the wire, and you've added one last illuminating chart, a chilling conclusion, and a stunning cover page to the research paper that cost you more in caffeine bills to date than any other. What is your next click?

Bingo! If you've been following the Word Blog lately, you know Ron recommended that you apply a theme to help define the mood and character of your document.

When you choose a document theme, you're choosing a set of colors, fonts, and effects for your document (effects show up when you have charts or SmartArt in your document). Ron even suggests that you choose a theme before you choose a style set, which is a set of formatting characteristics that affect the layout of your document. For more about how themes and styles relate to one another, take a look at Style basics in Word on Office.com.

Find Themes on the Page Layout tab, and you'll discover a rich selection of document themes to match any mood you want to convey to your readers. Try a few looks before you commit to a character statement for your masterpiece: Rest your mouse on Black Tie to preview a formal message or on Clarity to drive the point home.

And if none of the theme options quite suits, you can ceate a custom theme that makes every document your own.

Did you know that you can prevent readers from changing the theme that you've applied to your document? By default, all styles including themes can be changed by others, but you can actually keep people from changing the formatting or styles for all or part of your document. Handy after you've put considerable thought into the overall look and feel of your document.

Come on now, make one last click that could change the way readers view your message. Not a bad return on investment in the world of caffeine shots and all-nighters.

--Leslie Cole