How To Create a Template in Word (.dot)

Happy Friday! We're bringing you another helpful tip on authoring today to close out the week.

This week's tip is a HUGE time-saver. We're teaching you how to create templates in Word. Do this now and save yourself hours and hours of boring formatting work over the long run! That means more solutions written, more productivity, and more money for you. That's good all around.

Now, let's get started. We'll go over what a template is, how to create one, and how to save it. If you have further questions, ask them here on the blog or on the LinkedIn group.

What is a template?
A template is a document that saves all of its formatting (fonts, delimiters, margins, page size, headers) so you can easily duplicate your solution format again and again. Imagine all the tedious time saved! A template saves in a .dot format, so make sure that when you finish each solution and save it, you change the name and convert this to .docx. More on that in the final part of this tutorial.

How do I create a template?
It's super easy. For our purposes, you can actually use our template document that we send you when you start a project, and then just go to File>Save As>Word Template. Alternatively, create your own template for certain types of solutions (i.e. maybe you have a lot of similar discussion questions or accounting questions with similar tables). Now, each time you open that file, it will preserve all formatting so you can start fresh with each new solution. Voila!

How do I save each solution?
Now, you know you'll need to change certain things in each file, like the chapter ID and problem ID, possibly the date (unless you also make that update automatically too, smart idea.). Then you're all done writing the solution. You can't simply hit Ctrl+S. You'll need to go to the file menu and Save As. Just hit .docx, update the file name to reflect your BookID-ChapID-ProbID, and then you're all set.

It's as easy as that. Imagine how much time that will save you in the long run if you set that up now. In solutions authoring, time really is the same thing as money, so we recommend you do this today!

For more information on this, check out Microsoft's tutorial on their website. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

A Look at the Chegg Textbook Solutions App

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share with you some screenshots of the brand new, beautiful Chegg Textbook Solutions app for iPhone. I know many of you use Android phones, so I wanted to still give you the opportunity to check it out and see what all the hard work you've done looks like. 

To say I'm proud is really an understatement. I'm ecstatic at how your work has translated to app form. I hope you all share in the excitement that we have in taking part in the educational revolution! It's such a great time to be involved in education technology. We can now help students all over the globe learn 24 hours a day on their phones and tablets. What a long way we've come. And we're always saying it over here: I just wish I had had this when I was in school! Who knows how much better I would have done. Maybe I'd be an expert organic chemist or a microbiologist right about now if you all had been around to help me back in the day. I'm so appreciative to work with you all on a daily basis.

Without further ado, here is the app:

This is what the opening page looks like. You can use your phone to scan the barcode of your book in a snap. Too cool!

We had a copy of this book laying around, so we scanned it. Voila!

The app directs you on how to buy the book, how to navigate the book, and how to rate it. You can also comment on a step of a solution to say something is incorrect or needs more clarity. Then we look at those comments and address them in-house.

This is what step 1 of this particular solution looks like. You get a free preview or...

You can click on the step and scroll through it with your finger. 

If you have an iPhone, download the app now. For a limited time, the solutions are free, so take some screen shots of your own work and share with friends and family!