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opportunities for a better life
you're already using a theme in your
document even if you don't know it the
default office theme is where this color
palette comes from also your theme fonts
and last but not least shape styles so
what exactly is a theme well basically
it's a set of design elements that can
be applied to your document to give it a
consistent professional look to get
started go to the design tab click the
themes command and then mouse over the
options in the drop down menu for a
preview as you can see the theme
elements I've used are changing like the
fonts and colors to apply a theme all
you have to do is click the thumbnail
and the change will take effect
immediately themes are also extremely
easy to change once you've applied one
so you can try different styles and
designs anytime you want if we go back
to the command for example and switch to
a different theme you can see how easy
it is to completely change the look of
your document let's try this one you can
also quickly customize your current
theme by using the color and font
commands on the right just click the
command and pick one you like or click
customize colors to make your own color
scheme
the same goes for fonts just click the
command to pick one I think this feature
is really neat because it lets you make
changes without giving up the overall
look of the design keep in mind trying
out different themes like this will only
work if you take advantage of what they
have to offer
that means sticking to the built-in
theme elements whenever possible
let's take a look at what happens if I
change my title text to a non theme
color for instance
we'll go with the dark red here at the
bottom of the menu I'm also going to
change this to a non themed font
at this point if we go back to the
design tab and choose a different theme
you'll see that the text is going to
keep the formatting I applied no matter
what even if it doesn't work well with
the design now this doesn't mean you
shouldn't use non theme elements in your
document it's just good to know how they
work so you can use them to your
advantage
themes are a great option for creating
consistent professional-looking
documents even if you don't have much
experience as a designer they're easy to
use and can be changed at any time so
don't be afraid to experiment