Template creation for Word, PowerPoint, Writer, Impress and LaTeX for a university in Munich

Long-term development and optimization of templates for science and administration

In 2015, a large Munich university faced a challenge: a new, modern corporate design - but the document templates? Outdated, inconsistent, cumbersome. Together with ediundsepp Gestaltungsgesellschaft mbH, the university set out to find a solution. The choice fell on eWorks - Microsoft partner and specialist for customized Office templates. The university behind the order wanted to have professional Word templates created, but also PowerPoint templates, OpenOffice and LibreOffice templates and even LaTeX templates - a rare combination and therefore a challenge for the Microsoft Word specialist eWorks. Objective: Standardized templates that simply work! No more wild formatting, no eternal search for the right template - just a well thought-out system that complies with corporate design guidelines and makes working with documents easier, faster and more professional. Another particular challenge was to take into account the different ideas of the individual faculties with regard to layout, structure and content, while at the same time being able to maintain and service the wealth of templates for the various applications in a cost-efficient manner. eWorks impressed with its clever, cost-efficient concept, its many years of Microsoft Office expertise and its experience as a VBA service provider - and was ultimately awarded the contract to program a corresponding template system.

The challenge? The technical university needed a variety of templates - for letters, minutes, scientific documents, certificates, notices, applications, handouts, brochures, leaflets, posters, posters, doctoral certificates and much more. In different versions, for example in DIN A4 and DIN A3 paper format or 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio. And all of this for different faculties and departments, with individual logos and layouts. And for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, OpenOffice or LibreOffice Writer, Impress and even LaTeX. Sounds like a mammoth task? This is exactly where the trick came in: eWorks developed a powerful "template generator" that generates hundreds of perfectly formatted document templates for the various faculties and departments from a few basic templates at the click of a mouse. At the touch of a button, it creates hundreds of perfectly formatted document templates in the corporate design with unbeatable speed. The initial plan was to program an Access or Excel VBA tool, but the template generator was ultimately programmed using Microsoft .NET and C#. Thanks to flexible XML control, templates or specialist areas can be easily changed or added to at any time, even without programming knowledge. Thanks to this clever concept, the university only has to maintain comparatively few templates, but can still provide each department and division with customized Office templates in its individual corporate design. Another feature of the template generator is the automatic integration of metadata: For example, the author's name, version numbers or faculty information can be automatically inserted into the generated documents to ensure a uniform structure. The template generator grows with you: New faculties? No problem. New templates? Simply add them. Thanks to clever XML control, adjustments can be made directly - without having to dig deep into the code. As a result, the solution remains optimally scalable for future requirements and the university benefits from enormous time savings, as Office templates can be managed centrally and generated individually for each department.

The template generator was ready - now it was time to use it: ediundsepp and eWorks were able to create the first MS Word template. Many more Word templates followed, then PowerPoint templates, Writer templates and Impress templates, right up to the LaTeX templates, with ediundsepp providing reliable support in the design coordination. The different templates had to be created for each application: Word letter template, Writer letter template, LaTeX letter template, Word certificate template, Writer certificate template and so on (see above). Each equipped with modern convenience functions such as format templates, document protection, tables of contents, etc. The complex template for academic theses in Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer and LaTeX, including a predefined document structure, formatted directories and practical format templates, was essential and challenging in order to provide students with optimum support in the professional creation of their Bachelor's and Master's theses. This is where the experienced eWorks programmers, VBA experts and document specialists came into play to ensure an optimally structured and formatted solution. The LaTeX master template for Linux, macOS and Windows, which includes a complete LaTeX development environment with modular structures, cover sheets, dimensioning specifications and comprehensive documentation - always with a focus on LaTeX compiler compatibility and fast compilation - proved to be a particularly tough nut to crack. In addition, detailed technical documentation for training and second-level support for staff and students was provided to ensure efficient use of the Office templates. Thanks to its many years of experience as a Word expert and PowerPoint specialist, eWorks was able to develop a flexible, cross-platform template solution.

In addition to the classic Office templates for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Writer and Impress, doctoral certificates in LaTeX were also required - a highly demanding task, as LaTeX is widely used in the university environment, but its strict structure and dependence on specific packages required careful implementation. eWorks developed a modular LaTeX template for doctoral certificates that was not only tailored specifically for the client, but also took into account the requirements of various faculties. One particular challenge was multilingualism: in addition to the main German version, an English version of the "preliminary certificate" was developed to offer international doctoral students a consistent solution. Fonts, layouts and file/folder structures were defined in close coordination with the university so that the doctoral certificates could be used uniformly and in accordance with standards throughout the university. During development, the LaTeX template went through several iterative optimization phases with different releases (including version V07) to ensure print quality, readability and smooth use with different LaTeX compilers. Thanks to this structured approach, the university was able to manage its doctoral certificates completely digitally and standardize them across all faculties - a decisive step towards modern, automated document processing.

From the initial idea to the finished solution: eWorks developed, tested and implemented the university's document generator and office templates together with ediundsepp. Thanks to close cooperation between all parties, specific requirements of individual faculties and departments were taken into account and integrated into the system. The result: a significant simplification of document creation and a massive reduction in formatting work. Thanks to the automation provided by the template generator, manual adjustments have been drastically reduced. And thanks to the central management and automation, sources of error are minimized and the consistency of the documents is maintained for years to come. Many previously manual formatting tasks have been automated - in particular thanks to standardized templates with predefined layouts and metadata. This has enabled the university to sustainably optimize its document processes and take them to a whole new level.

Since the templates went live, eWorks has been the reliable Microsoft Office partner for ediundsepp, the design agency that commissioned the project. Whether regular updates, bug fixes or functional enhancements - the Office specialists and VBA programmers at eWorks have been working hand in hand for over 10 years to ensure that the Office templates developed remain up-to-date and optimally usable. The initially developed templates for PowerPoint and Word 2013, Office 2010 and 2007 have been continuously maintained over the years and further developed for newer Office versions such as 2016, 2019, 2021 and Office 365. At the same time, performance optimizations have been made to shorten loading times, minimize memory requirements and process large documents even more efficiently. Thanks to eWorks and ediundsepp, the template landscape of the university behind the contract always remains up-to-date and efficient, with reliable support instead of short-term freelance solutions. This results in long-lasting, future-proof templates - and for special requirements, our contract programming ensures tailor-made solutions.

Do you know what it's like: hours of formatting, unnecessary errors, chaotic templates? No more of that! Our professional Word templates, PowerPoint masters and LibreOffice templates save time, prevent errors and ensure a smooth workflow. And for even more efficiency? Our VBA developers can program smart automations, workflows, Word macros, Excel macros and other little helpers tailored to your processes and integrate them seamlessly into Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc. We offer a comprehensive range of services relating to professional Word forms, templates, automation and digitization - and if you want to have a Word or Excel macro created, we have been the right contact for VBA programming for over 25 years. Contact us today - and take your documents to the next level!