In previous lessons, you were tasked with downloading the template and using it to outline results and write down topic ideas you believe are necessary for people to understand and practice to achieve results.

In this video, I will explain how to use the template and why it’s important to adhere to it.

How to Use the Course Template

Here is the template for Course Development. Upon opening it, you will see some content. Let me explain what it means:

As mentioned before, you will need to fill in essential information for course identification, such as the title, program, and author. This is straightforward; replace the dummy text.

The styles shown are there for you to see how they will appear in the document. You can change the aesthetics to your liking by adjusting the color palette in the Design tab, but that is the only aspect you should modify.

If you find the text difficult to read or think the font size is too small, you have two options:

• Change the size in the “Normal” style only if you know what you’re doing. Otherwise:
• Download the version designed for people with visual challenges.

Other than this, you should not alter any styling beyond what is available in the Styling section of the ribbon.

How to Use Styles and Why They Are Necessary

The styles can be found in the Home tab of the Ribbon. This template is designed to help you structure the content later on, but even in this lesson, you’ll already benefit from the styling.

Styling is crucial because it visually organizes the content and allows you to move sections and lessons around along with the content that belongs to them. For example, if we have two lessons with content and want to move one lesson to another section, styling makes this easy.

Unlike other templates where you see Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3, our headings are renamed to fit the needs of this work.

The styles are named as follows:

• Module
• Lesson
• Chapter
• Sub-Chapter
• Screen Recording

You can easily understand the meaning of each style by looking at the Styles pane. Over time, you will be able to differentiate the styles by their appearance. The document will be organized according to this hierarchy.

After Opening the Template: Save the Document

When working with templates, it’s important to understand the difference between a Word Template File and a Word Document. Remember, each time you open the template, you start with the initial file content.

This is designed so that you can reuse the same template for different courses. To avoid losing your content, you must save it as a Word Document immediately after opening the template.

Styling Tips

• Styles change the entire paragraph – you don’t need to select the content. Just click inside the line you want to apply the style to, and then click on the style.
• Another option is to use hotkeys for the styles. Click inside the line or on the side of the document and use the following key combinations.

HEADING LEVEL	HOT KEYS
Module Title	Ctrl + Alt + 1
Lesson	Ctrl + Alt + 2
Chapter	Ctrl + Alt + 3
Sub-Chapter	Ctrl + Alt + 4
Screen Recording	Ctrl + Alt + 5

• The “Lesson” Style Automatically Assigns a Number – This style is used to mark and count the number of lessons that need to be recorded. It’s important to note that this numbering corresponds to videos, not lessons. For example, your course will begin with an introduction followed by the first lesson. This lesson will be numbered as 2.
• Demote or Promote Levels – In the Navigation pane, right-click on the level you need to update and select “Demote” or “Promote” to adjust the hierarchy.
• Add or Remove Levels – To modify the structure, right-click on the level you want to update in the Navigation pane and choose from the following options:
  • “New Header Before”
  • “New Header After”
  • “New Subheading”
• Swap the Content of Sections – You can rearrange your document by dragging a heading to a different location. All associated content and sub-lessons will automatically move to the new location.
• Highlight Style – For recording purposes, it’s often necessary to highlight text. There are two ways to do this:
  • You can change the font formatting directly in the ribbon or drop-down menu.
  • Alternatively, you can use the Style pane. Updating the style in the Style pane will automatically apply changes throughout the entire document. For instance, if you decide later to make all highlighted text UPPER CASE, the Styles feature allows for bulk updates.
  • To remove highlight styling, simply right-click on the styled content and select “Normal” in the Style pane.
• This is just an overview of the template’s capabilities. You don’t need to remember everything right now. Feel free to return to this video whenever you need to refresh your memory or start using some of these tips.
• You may not fully understand why these features are necessary at this point, but don’t worry—they will be extremely useful in the practical work we’ll do now and in the lesson about structuring your content.
• See you in the next video.

Downloadables

Course Creation [Word Template]