Inside Microsoft Create, the new Office templates site and more

Office-Watch.comLast updated: 10 November 2022

Featured,Microsoft 365,Microsoft Excel,Microsoft Office,Microsoft Office for Mac,Microsoft Powerpoint,Microsoft Word,Office 2010,Office 2013,Office 2016,Office 2019,Office 2021 / Office LTSC,Office 365

Microsoft Create is a new part of Microsoft 365 that will replace the existing Office templates site and more. Office Watch explains how to use the Create site now, the many categories available and what’s to come.

Cut through all the usual Microsoft Hype™ like “ultimate creator launchpad” and the dreadful phrase “uplevel your creative skills” (Uplevel⁈ ‘see me after class’ – Ed).

The new Create site (still in Preview) is an expansion of the existing Office Templates site.

For the moment, try the Create site to find templates for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and videos for Clipchamp.

Based on our informal comparison, most but not all of the files from the old https://Templates.microsoft.com site have been copied over to the new https://Create.microsoft.com

Visible but not available

Microsoft Create is still in Preview, despite the strong push to promote the site.

That’s obvious when you dig down into some of the new types, such as Social Media posts. The templates are visible in searches but not yet available. The item isn’t downloadable, yet.

There’s a link to Microsoft Designer which doesn’t work because Designer isn’t publicly available yet. Very frustrating …

Using Microsoft Create

Like the Office Templates site, just type in a search term like ‘Birthday’ then press Enter. Do NOT click the ‘Create from scratch’ button which looks like it’ll start a search but is a different thing, see below.

Using your search, Create will show all the templates etc which match that keyword/s.

There are many filtering options at right of the search box starting with Category, Style and Color

Style

Modern
Organic
Vintage
Whimsical

Color

Choose based on the template color scheme. Though, in most cases, you can easily change the colors supplied in the design to something else.

Create from Scratch

The ‘Create from Scratch’ option is very prominent and looks interesting but it’s nothing special.

‘Create from Scratch’ just opens up a blank starter in whatever app you choose; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Forms, Clipchamp or the upcoming Microsoft Designer. Except Designer, the rest can be easily done from the program itself..

What about Microsoft Designer?

Designer is another new part of Microsoft 365 which will make images and social media posts based on text descriptions. Once it goes public, Designer will be included with Microsoft Create.

See What is Dall-E and what it’ll do for Microsoft 365 customers for an explanation of the underlying technology and how you can use it now.

Christmas Cheer with Office explains how to use Dall-E to make festive themed pictures and drawings. We’ve included the full images for each example in the book, in case one of them catches your eye.

What is Dall-E and what it’ll do for Microsoft 365 customers
Ten Microsoft announcements in brief