How to Use and Create Excel Templates

Learn how to choose, customize, save, reuse, edit, and troubleshoot Excel templates, including .xltx and macro-enabled .xltm files.

By: Ethan Mercer Published: October 5, 2026

An Excel template is a reusable starting point for new workbooks. It can preserve sheet layouts, labels, formulas, formatting, charts, validation rules, print settings, and other workbook features so you do not rebuild the same structure every time.

The template remains the master. When you create a workbook from it, Excel gives you a separate working file to complete and save. That separation is what makes a template safer and more convenient than repeatedly opening an old report, deleting its data, and hoping nothing important was left behind.

The Windows instructions below use current desktop Excel. Excel for Mac has the same template file types but uses File > Save as Template and File > New from Template. Excel for the web can use online templates, but creating and managing local custom template files is a desktop workflow.

Decide whether a template is the right tool

A template is most useful when the structure stays consistent while the reporting period, customer, project, or input data changes.

Approach	Best for	Main tradeoff
Excel template	Repeated workbooks that should begin with the same structure and rules	The master must be maintained when the process changes.
Copy an existing workbook	A one-off variation that genuinely needs the earlier file’s completed data	Old values, dates, links, or notes can survive unnoticed.
Blank workbook	Exploration or work with no stable repeatable layout	Recurring setup must be recreated manually.

Good candidates include expense reports, monthly scorecards, project estimates, inventory counts, invoices, and recurring checklists. A template is less helpful when every workbook needs a fundamentally different model.

Start with a built-in or online Excel template

Excel’s template gallery is the fastest route when a suitable layout already exists. Treat the template as a starting design, not as proof that its formulas, categories, or assumptions match your situation.

Select File > New.
Search for a task such as monthly budget, invoice, or project tracker, or browse the available categories.
Select a result and review its preview and description.

Choose Create to open a new workbook based on it.
Review the workbook before entering real data: inspect formulas, labels, dates, units, print settings, and any external links or active content.
Save the working workbook with a clear name and location.

Excel for the web also provides templates through Microsoft Create. Microsoft’s web-template guide explains how to filter the gallery for Excel files and open one for editing.

A polished template can still be wrong for your process. Check formulas and assumptions before relying on totals, forecasts, tax calculations, or due dates.

Design a custom template around the repeatable parts

Start with a clean workbook or a workbook whose structure is already proven. Keep the elements that should appear in every new file and remove anything tied to one completed job.

Usually keep	Usually remove or replace
Sheet names and order	Previous period’s transactions or responses
Headings, instructions, and units	Customer names, employee names, or project-specific identifiers
Formulas and named ranges	Hard-coded dates that should change in each new workbook
Cell styles, number formats, and conditional formatting	Comments, notes, and temporary highlights from earlier work
Data validation and protected input areas	Stale external links, queries, or connection details
Charts, page layouts, headers, footers, and print areas	Example data unless it is clearly labeled and genuinely useful

Microsoft confirms that templates can retain workbook and sheet formatting, page settings, styles, formulas, charts, validation, protection settings, hyperlinks, macros, calculation options, and view settings. Its Excel startup and template reference lists the supported settings.

Make input cells obvious

A reusable workbook should tell the next person where to begin. Use consistent labels, a restrained input-cell style, short instructions, and validation where entries must follow a rule. Keep formulas separate from manual input when the layout permits, and test the workbook with realistic values before saving the master.

Avoid volatile starting data

Remove values that will become misleading in the next copy: reporting dates, approval names, old balances, imported records, and status notes. If example data is needed to explain the model, label it clearly and include an instruction to remove it.

Choose the correct Excel template format

Format	Use it when	Macro support
`.xltx`	The template uses formulas, formatting, charts, validation, and other standard Excel features but no VBA macros	No
`.xltm`	The template must retain VBA macro code	Yes
`.xlt`	A legacy Excel 97–2003 workflow specifically requires the older template format	Legacy format

For a new template without macros, choose .xltx. If the workbook contains VBA that users need, choose .xltm; saving it as .xltx does not preserve VBA code. Microsoft’s Excel file-format reference documents both formats.

Do not enable macros merely because a template requests it. Microsoft advises enabling macros only when you understand the code and trust the source. A macro-enabled template may be legitimate, but its file type is a reason to review the security warning rather than dismiss it. See Microsoft’s macro-security guidance before enabling unfamiliar code.

Save a workbook as a custom template in Windows

Open the workbook you prepared as the master.
Perform a final check for old data, personal information, broken formulas, external links, and print settings.
Select File > Save As, then choose Browse or This PC as needed.
Enter a descriptive template name.
Set Save as type to Excel Template (*.xltx). If the template must retain macros, choose Excel Macro-Enabled Template (*.xltm).

Keep the suggested personal template location unless your organization uses another approved folder.
Select Save, then close the template.

When the personal template location is configured, custom templates appear under File > New > Personal; in some Excel versions, that category is labeled Custom. Microsoft’s Office template guide covers saving, using, and editing custom templates on Windows and Mac.

Save a template on Mac

Open the prepared workbook.
Select File > Save as Template.
Enter a name and choose Excel Template (.xltx) or Excel Macro-Enabled Template (.xltm).
Choose the location if required, then select Save.

By default, current Excel for Mac saves user templates in the Office user-content Templates folder. Using Excel’s template command is safer than manually guessing the library path.

Create a working workbook from your template

Do not open the master and immediately start entering monthly data. Create a new workbook from it:

On Windows, select File > New > Personal or Custom. On Mac, select File > New from Template.

Select the custom template.
Confirm that Excel opened a new, unsaved workbook based on the template.
Save the working file with an ordinary workbook name, usually in .xlsx format or .xlsm when its macros must be retained.
Enter the period-specific or project-specific data in the working copy.

The template should remain unchanged after normal use. If your work appears inside the master the next time you create a file, you edited the template itself rather than creating a workbook from it.

Edit an existing template without confusing it with a copy

Template maintenance should be deliberate. Open the actual .xltx or .xltm file through File > Open or from its template folder, make the changes, and save it in the same template format. Then create a fresh workbook from the revised template and test it.

For a template used by several people, keep a simple version or revision date in an instructions sheet. Communicate material changes such as renamed inputs, altered formulas, new validation rules, or updated print layouts. Existing workbooks do not automatically inherit later changes to the template from which they were created.

Set a default workbook or worksheet template

This advanced desktop option changes what Excel uses for new blank files. Create a workbook with the default sheets, fonts, styles, page setup, and other settings you want, then save it as an Excel template named Book.xltx in the Excel XLStart folder. A one-sheet template named Sheet.xltx can provide the defaults for newly inserted worksheets.

The exact XLStart location varies by installation and platform. Use Excel’s documented settings to locate it instead of relying on a path copied from another computer. Files placed in startup folders can open automatically, and automatic macros may run when Excel starts, so keep that folder limited to trusted Excel files.

Fix common Excel template problems

Problem	Likely cause and fix
The template does not appear under Personal or Custom	Confirm that it was saved as `.xltx` or `.xltm` in Excel’s configured personal templates location.
A working copy contains old information	The master still contains job-specific data. Open the template itself, remove the stale content, save it, and test a new copy.
Macros disappeared	The file was probably saved in a format without VBA support. Use `.xltm` for the template and `.xlsm` for working files that must retain macros.
Changes do not appear in older workbooks	A template affects new workbooks created from it. Update existing workbooks separately when necessary.
The master was overwritten with real data	Restore a clean backup or remove the entered data, then use File > New to create working copies in the future.
A downloaded template shows a security warning	Review the source and the active content. Do not enable macros, links, or controls unless they are expected and trusted.

Excel template questions

What is the difference between an Excel template and a workbook?

A template is a reusable master used to generate new workbooks. A workbook is the working file in which you enter and save current data. Modern non-macro templates normally use .xltx, while ordinary non-macro workbooks use .xlsx.

Can an Excel template contain formulas and charts?

Yes. Templates can retain formulas, charts, formatting, validation, print settings, labels, protection settings, and many other workbook features. They can also contain starting data when that data genuinely belongs in every new copy.

Can I create a template from a downloaded template?

Yes. Create a workbook from the downloaded template, customize it, remove content that should not recur, and save the result as your own .xltx or .xltm template.

How do I delete a custom Excel template?

Close Excel, open the configured personal templates folder in File Explorer or Finder, and remove the template file. Keep a backup if the template may be needed later.

Build the master once, review every copy

A dependable template preserves the stable parts of a process and leaves the changing parts obvious. Choose a suitable starting point, remove stale data, select the correct file type, and create each working workbook through Excel’s New screen. Revisit the master when the process changes, but continue checking every new copy before its results are used or shared.