One of the features I love in SharePoint is the ability to link a Word document template to a Content Type. This is a real time saver if you’re creating documents from templates frequently. It also encourages people to save their documents in the right place.

Here’s a demo I created showing how to create a template that uses fields from the content type.

Steps:

• Enable Content Types in the Document Library Settings, Advanced Settings
• In Microsoft Word, create a Document Template and save it to the Document Library
• Create a Content Type and add any custom fields
• Right click the template document and Edit in Word (not Word Online)
• Add the Metadata Fields by choosing Insert \ Quick Parts \ Document Properties
• Save the template
• Right click the template in the Document Library and download a copy
• Edit the Content Type (in Document Library Settings) and in the Advanced settings, upload the template document downloaded in the previous step

The template should now appear in the ‘New’ options in the Document Library and Files tab of the SharePoint ribbon.

Document templates can also be created using other Microsoft Office applications e.g. Excel and PowerPoint.

There are all sorts of places this feature can be used. In my own work, we use it to ensure the correct document templates are used for things like contracts, proposals and technical documentation.

How to create a Template in Microsoft Word

Introduction to SharePoint Content Types