In this presentation, author and Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA, will guide you through standardizing your workbooks with Excel templates and themes. He’ll demonstrate how to create and reuse workbook and worksheet templates, locate Excel’s template folders, customize theme colors and fonts, and save your own themes for future use. You’ll also learn how to protect worksheets while allowing edits to specific ranges, and how to streamline data entry with data-validation drop-down lists. Packed with practical, ready-to-use techniques, this course is designed to help you build consistent, professional spreadsheets—faster.
David H. Ringstrom, CPA, has more than 30 years of experience as a spreadsheet and accounting software consultant and speaker. He has presented over 2,500 live webinars and is the author or co-author of ten books, including “Microsoft 365 Excel All-in-One for Dummies”, “Microsoft 365 Excel for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and “QuickBooks Online for Dummies”.
David demonstrates every technique twice: first on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps and then live in Excel for Microsoft 365 for Windows. He highlights any differences in Excel 2024, 2021, or 2019 during the presentation and in his detailed handouts. Attendees also receive an Excel workbook containing most of the examples he uses, making it easy to follow along and apply the techniques later. David additionally supports Excel for Mac users by answering their follow-up questions via email.
Publication Date: June 2026
Designed For
Professionals seeking to enhance their Excel skills, streamline workflows with custom templates, and improve data presentation using Microsoft 365 will benefit from this webinar.
Topics Covered
- Applying a consistent look and feel to your charts by way of chart templates
- Storing theme settings as a THMX file
- Preventing errors from the start by choosing from thousands of free Excel spreadsheet templates
- Enabling selected users to access protected areas of a worksheet by way of the Allow Users to Edit Ranges feature
- Finding default folders and setting up custom locations
- Creating an in-cell list by way of Excel’s Data Validation feature
- Applying Microsoft’s predefined styles for shapes and charts
- Guiding data entry with conditional formatting
- Defining palettes and font pairs to fit your needs
- Avoiding creating spreadsheets from scratch: use prebuilt templates or create your own
- Saving your spreadsheets as templates so users always start with a fresh copy
- Switching colors, fonts, and styles with one change
Learning Objectives
- State how to quickly add a template, such as an Amortization Table, to an existing workbook
- Identify which command enables you to import cell styles from another open workbook
- Recognize which option on Excel's File menu enable you to search for free spreadsheet templates
- Identify which file extensions signify an Excel worksheet template
- Identify the Windows Environment Command that gives you fastest access to the Application Data folder where your templates are stored
Level
Intermediate
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Computer Software & Applications (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites
Prior experience with Microsoft Excel is recommended.
Advance Preparation
None
Instructor
David H. Ringstrom
David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is an author and nationally recognized instructor who teaches over 200 webinars each year. His Excel courses are based on over 30 years of consulting and teaching experience. David’s catchphrase is “Either you work Excel, or it works you,” so he focuses on what he sees users don’t, but should, know about Microsoft Excel. His goal is to empower you to use Excel more effectively. He's currently writing a book titled "Exploring Excel's Hidden Treasures". To learn more about David, you can view his
LinkedIn profile and follow him on
Facebook or
Twitter (@excelwriter).