Posted by Barbara Welvaarts on 23/05/2012.

Including your corporate identity and branding in your company’s documents has become increasingly important. Everything changes.. not only our visual identity, but also the software and the way you use your programs.
We send more and more documents electronically and we wish to transmit a clear corporate identity, so of course we wish to project a uniform image externally.
That’s why Microsoft Office 2010 includes a lot of features on the integration of your visual identity in your Office templates (Word, PowerPoint, ...).

In all the years I have been working for Xylos, I have done a lot of consultancy on integrating corporate identity in MS Office and learned a lot of do’s and dont’s.
So here are 5 Do’s and Don’t’s on incorporating your visual identity in Office 2010:

 Don't

• Underestimate the workload. It isn’t always clear which impact introducing a new corporate branding or new templates have or the workload involved.
  A lot of effort and time is often put into the creation of a new branding, but what’s the use if you don’t include it into your Office templates?
  
• Let someone who doesn’t have the correct expertise develop your templates.
  If the initial setup is wrong or too complicated, you will need tinker & tweak workarounds and people will not be inclined to use your templates.
  
• Take it for granted that everyone knows that new templates have been developed and where to find them. Communicate!
  
• Treat Office 2010 the same as Office 2003. The latest Office version offers a whole new range of extra features to incorporate your corporate identity.
  
  There’s a lot more involved than just defining a standard font and including your logo. Have you for example thought about your Theme colors, Table Styles, Building blocks, etc.?
  Spend all your budget and effort on development. If you don’t communicate and don’t explain, how will people know?

Do

• Involve your Communication department, IT and Key users
  
• Use a checklist to make sure you include all the necessary features
  
• Make your templates user friendly. If they are easy to use, people will not look for non-compliant alternatives
  
• Make sure that you provide room for testing by key users and fine-tuning
  
• Care about the users of your Office templates: not only communicate the location of the new templates but also on the features involved (example: send a tip of the day by e-mail). Give training to your users, not everyone knows for example Quick Parts, Themes, your own Styles, etc.

By the way, if you are in need of some expert advice or consultancy on Microsoft Office templates, feel free to contact Xylos: mailto:xylos@xylos.com :)