Creating a business brochure may sound complicated, but it really isn’t. Microsoft Word makes is very easy to create a brochure for any need. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone walk you through the process and show you how to do it?
I’m going to serve as your guide, walking you through the process of making a brochure in Microsoft Word, start to finish. I’ll even provide detailed screenshots each step of the way to ensure that you are successful at creating your brochure.
It’s never been easier to make brochure. In fact, you can make a brochure in minutes. Let me show you how.
Step 1: Choose a Template from Within Microsoft Word
There are two ways in which you can obtain a brochure template using Microsoft Word. You can create a brochure through available templates found within Microsoft Word, or you can download a brochure template from Microsoft’s website to use.
After seeing what brochure templates Microsoft Word makes available to you from within Word itself, if you don’t find the right brochure template for your needs, you always visit Microsoft’s website to see what other brochure templates are available for you to use.
Let’s begin by taking a look at what brochure templates are available within Microsoft Word first, and then if you don’t find what you are looking for, we will then look at the repository of available brochure templates so that you can choose the template that will work for you.
To begin, open up Microsoft Word and click on the HOME button on the left hand side of your screen, and then click on MORE TEMPLATES on the right hand side of your screen (see screenshot below).
You will now see the screen displayed below.
Enter the word, “BROCHURE” (without quotes), in the search text box displayed at the top of the screen and hit the ENTER key.
You will see a list of brochure templates available for you to choose from. Also note, that you can scroll down the page to see more templates.
Scroll through all of these templates to see if any one of these templates meets your needs.
It is important that you understand that when you look for a template, you only need to be concerned with the layout of the brochure. Don’t concern yourself with the images used, the size of the fonts, or even the accent color used. All of that can be changed after you decide on the layout, and I’ll show you how to do that later in this article.
Step 2: Choose a Template from Microsoft’s Website
Let’s assume for a minute that you were not happy with any of the brochure templates you just looked at. Are there any other brochure templates that you could look at that are available for free? You bet there is.
The second way for you to find a brochure template is from visiting Microsoft’s website. The advantage of visiting their website is that you *may* find additional templates that are not available in Microsoft Word. I say, “may“, because at the time of this writing, there are 36 brochure templates available in Microsoft Word, and there are 38 brochure templates available on Microsoft’s website, most of which are the same.
You may wonder why most of the templates available in Microsoft Word are available on their website. I thought the same thing. I would have hoped to have more available online that were not available within Word itself. But there is an advantage.
Let’s say that you and your boss were collaborating on the phone to determine which template should be used. You both could be visiting the same website that shows what “brochure” templates are available to choose from for a given project.
Let’s go to https://templates.office.com/ and find some more brochure templates that we can build using Microsoft Word. When you do, you should see the following screen.
Enter the word “BROCHURE” (again, without quotes), and hit the ENTER key.
In the screenshot shown below, you will note where I have highlighted the word, “WORD” in yellow. When searching for the word, BROCHURE, the website will display all Microsoft Office brochure templates, including those from Microsoft PowerPoint.
Because we are building a brochure using Microsoft Word, you will want to make sure that you only choose a template that has WORD displayed at the bottom of the thumbnail, which signifies that you are looking at a brochure template that is designed for use with Microsoft Word.
In this example, we are selecting the thumbnail from the third row, fourth column. Keep in mind, however, that it is highly likely that this particular template will not be found in the third row, fourth column for you, because more templates are added all the time. Additionally, if you select a few thumbnails by clicking on them for more information, those thumbnails will appear toward the top of the page.
Once you find a template that you like, (again, many of these templates are available to you within Microsoft Word), you will want to double-click on it. When you do, it will display a page like the following.
After viewing a larger version of the thumbnail image, click the blue DOWNLOAD button to download that template, and save it to your desktop.
I know that this template is also available when searching for a brochure within Microsoft Word, but I wanted to show you how to download a template from https://templates.office.com/.
After clicking the blue DOWNLOAD button, ensure that the OPEN WITH radio button with MICROSOFT WORD is selected.
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As soon as you click the OK button to open up the file with Microsoft Word, you will see the following screen. From here, click the X icon at the top left to close out the Navigation panel. Additionally, you will need to click the ENABLE EDITING button at the top of the screen so that you can edit this template.
You will now see the following screen.
From this screen, I will show you how to do the following:
- I will show you how to edit text.
- I will who you how to swap images for your own.
- I will show you how to change the design accent color used.
Modifying these three things will make the template uniquely yours. You see, after entering your text, changing out the images (if desired), and changing the colors to meet your needs, the brochure will look like you created it from scratch, especially if you change out the images.
As a precaution, the first thing you will want to do is to save the template to your Desktop, (or wherever you want). That way, any changes you make will automatically be saved to the .docx file (the brochure document), on your Desktop.
Editing Text
There are two ways to modify text within your brochure.
1) You can modify the font used in a single paragraph or heading
This means that you change the font (and size of the font), for one paragraph or one heading. You can do this by simply right-clicking on the text in question so that the menu will display. In the example below, I right clicked on the first paragraph.
Once the menu appears, you can choose the font you wish to use, and finally you can determine the size of the font that looks best. Play around with this. You won’t break it, and by following the steps I’ve shared, you can simply put it back to the way that you had it before.
2) You can change the font used globally
This means that you can change the style of a font throughout the entire template. So, for example, if I wanted to change the style of the font used in every paragraph within the brochure, I could simply click on any paragraph and at the top of the screen, I could choose any one of the styles listed at the top by simply clicking on that style.
But what if you don’t want to use any other those styles? Good question. Let me show you how you can modify the existing font style globally throughout the entire template.
In the image below, note that we have selected the first paragraph. We could have selected any paragraph, but for this example, I have selected the first paragraph. This paragraph displays the Style found in the box that the arrow points to.
If you right-click on that Style, you will want to click on MODIFY.
Once you do, you will then see the following dialog box displayed on your screen.
This MODIFY STYLE dialog box is very powerful, because you can change the font to any style you want, as well as the font size. You can even choose weather or not you want it to only apply to this document, or to every new document that is based on this template that you are modifying.
Below is an example of what this very same template will look like by simply modifying the default paragraph font for this template.
Notice how easy it is to read now? All I did was change the paragraph font to “Arial Nova Light”, and increased the font size to 12. I also changed the Heading font to Arial.
Simply changing the font within a template can make a world of difference to those who read your brochure, and as you can see, it does not take a lot to make a big difference. In fact, it’s the subtle differences that make a big impact.
Finally, to edit the text, simply select the text with your mouse (by clicking on it), and start typing. Yep, it’s that simple. This applies to any text found anywhere within the template.
Swapping Out a Template Image with Your Own Image
To change out the images, you need to double-click in the header area. For this particular template, simply double-click just above the section in this brochure that says, “Title or Heading Here”. You’ll find this at the top left of the first page of the template, but note that you can click anywhere at the top of the page (the first half an inch).
Once you double-click at the top of the page in the template, you will then see the following at the top left side of the page.
Note that the template has changed, allowing you to now edit the placement of images. The entire page will now look like the this.
We are now going to replace the image on the right bottom part of the page where the child is drawing. To replace this image, double-click on the image in question. Note that the Ribbon Menu will change to the SHAPE FORMAT menu, and that the image in question is selected. The page will now look like the image below.
Now that we have selected the image that we want to replace, we need to click on the PICTURE FORMAT menu item.
Now that we have selected the picture we want to replace by double-clicking on it, we want to focus our attention to the left side of the PICTURE FORMAT Ribbon Menu, and click on the CHANGE PICTURE icon as displayed below.
This will allow us to remove or replace the selected picture, while maintaining the size and position of the picture object.
Navigate to the image file that you would like to use to replace the existing image. Select the image file and click INSERT. This will replace the existing image with the one that you inserted.
The image that you have inserted *may* display upside down. Not to worry. Simply click on the “rotate image” handle and drag it around the image itself until the image displays properly.
Once you have flipped the image, to add a little flare, you could add a border around the image by simply right-clicking on the image, select OUTLINE > WEIGHT > and then 1/4 pt. The steps are displayed for you below.
Change the Accent Color
The last step to modify the brochure to make it uniquely yours, is to change the Design colors throughout the entire template. Fortunately, Microsoft Word makes this ridiculously easy for you, as they have a plethora of different color themes to choose from.
Simply click on DESIGN in the Ribbon Menu, and then select the COLORS icon as displayed below.
You will then see over 20 color schemes to choose from. If you hover over any one of them, the template will display the color scheme for you, so that you will be able to get an idea of what it will look like.
If you find that the color schemes provided do not meet your tastes, you can create your own by selecting CUSTOMIZE COLORS from that same drop-down menu.
Closing Thoughts
Microsoft Word is a very powerful, mature product. The templates made available to you will spark creativity, allowing you to create everything from professional looking brochures to business cards, and everything in between.
Now that you know the basics of how to create a brochure using Microsoft Word, you can take what you have learned and create other projects. I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, and I encourage you to share this page with a friend.
Tim Chesonis
Tim has been helping people with computers needs for several years, and he loves to help people succeed. He brings a wealth of wisdom and insight from an entrepreneur's perspective and enjoys freelance writing. In fact, when he's not writing an article, you might find him binge-watching Suits or formatting his computer . . . again, just for fun. To learn more about Tim, click here.25 Basic Computer Tips for Windows!
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