How to create a new Microsoft Word document

Introduction

Creating a new Microsoft Word document is one of the most basic yet essential tasks when using the program. Whether we’re writing a report, crafting a resume, or drafting a letter, starting a fresh document is the first step in bringing your ideas to life. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the simple process of creating a new document in Microsoft Word. Let's dive in!

The different ways to create new Microsoft Word documents

Starting from scratch

Microsoft Word offers many ways to create new documents. When we first open Microsoft Word, the Start Screen appears. To create a new blank document, we can simply click on Blank Document, and an empty document is created. This option is available in both the Home and New sections.

Blank Document in the Home section

Blank Document in the New section

This option is also available on the Quick Access Toolbar when we are already editing a document.

Blank Document in the Quick Access Toolbar

The shortcut for this command is pressing CTRL+N on our keyboard or cmd+N on a mac.

Using templates

If we don’t want to start from scratch, we can use a template. Templates can save us time and give our documents a professional touch. When we go to the New section, we’ll see a variety of templates available right within Word. We can browse to find the perfect template for our needs, or we can use the search function. Click on any of them and then click Create and a new document based on this template opens.

Browsing templates

Creating the document based on a template

If you have your own template, you can use it by going to the Open section and clicking on Browse and navigating to where you saved your custom template, selecting it and opening it as a new document. Microsoft Word templates have the .dotx file extension.

Open section

Open the template

Conclusion

Creating a new Microsoft Word document is a quick and straightforward process. With just a few clicks, we can start drafting, formatting, and saving our work. Now that you know how to create a new document, you can confidently begin your next writing project. Don’t forget to explore other blog posts for more tutorials and insights to help you make the most of Microsoft Word’s features. Until next time!