Get Custom Templates To Appear On The Start Screen In MS Office 2013

Office 2013 did something “helpful” (read: mildly chaotic): it introduced the Start screen. You know the one
the page that pops up when you open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint and proudly offers you templates you didn’t ask for,
plus a search bar you didn’t notice, plus a sudden urge to just open a blank file and pretend templates don’t exist.

The good news: Office 2013 absolutely can show your custom templates right on that Start screen.
The slightly-annoying news: it only does so if your templates live in the right place and Office knows where to look.
Once you set it up, though, your “Personal” templates show up like they pay rent there.

What “Start Screen Templates” Really Means in Office 2013

On the Start screen (or File > New), Office 2013 tends to split templates into two worlds:

• Featured: Microsoft-provided and online templates (the ones Office wants you to love).
• Personal: templates stored locally (or on a shared location) that you control.

If you’ve ever downloaded a template and then had to go on a scavenger hunt to find it again later… congrats,
you’ve met the main problem. Office 2013 doesn’t automatically treat “Downloads” as a template gallery.
It treats it as “somewhere you’ll forget about and then blame the computer for.”

The One Folder Trick: “Custom Office Templates”

For most people, the fastest path to success is simple: put your templates in the default personal templates folder.
In Office 2013 on Windows, that default is usually:

C:Users<YourUserName>DocumentsCustom Office Templates

When templates are stored there, Office can surface them under the Personal tab on the Start screen.
If you only do one thing from this article, do this thing. It’s the “move the couch through the front door”
solution: not elegant, but it gets the couch inside.

Why Office 2013 Made This More Confusing Than It Needed to Be

Earlier Office versions leaned heavily on a roaming AppData templates folder. Office 2013 shifted personal templates
into a Documents-based folder to separate them from online/Office.com templates and to make them easier for humans
to find (because apparently we can’t be trusted with AppData, which is fair).

Step-by-Step: Make Your Personal Templates Appear on the Start Screen

If your Personal tab is missing (or empty), you need to set the Default personal templates location.
This is the “tell Office where the good stuff lives” setting.

Word 2013: Set the Default Personal Templates Location

1. Open Word 2013.
2. Go to File > Options.
3. Click Save in the left sidebar.
4. In Default personal templates location, paste:
   
   C:Users<YourUserName>DocumentsCustom Office Templates
5. Click OK.
6. Close Word completely and reopen it. (Office loves a dramatic exit and re-entrance.)
7. Now check File > New. You should see Personal.

Excel 2013: Same Setting, Different Attitude

Excel uses the same idea: set the default personal templates folder, then it’ll display the templates under
Personal on the New screen.

1. Open Excel 2013.
2. Go to File > Options > Save.
3. Set Default personal templates location to your templates folder.
4. Restart Excel.
5. Go to File > New and open Personal.

PowerPoint 2013: Templates, Themes, and a Gallery That Can Behave

1. Open PowerPoint 2013.
2. Go to File > Options > Save.
3. Set Default personal templates location to your templates folder.
4. Restart PowerPoint.
5. Go to File > New and look for Personal.

Use the Right Template File Types (Because Office Is Picky Like That)

Templates need to be saved as actual template formats, not just “a file you really like.”
Here’s the cheat sheet:

How to Save a File as a Template (Without Playing “Save As Roulette”)

In each app, open the file you want to turn into a template and use:
File > Save As, then choose the appropriate template type.
Office 2013 typically nudges you toward the Custom Office Templates folder automatically when you choose a template type.
(It’s one of its more redeeming qualities.)

Make Your Templates Look Good on the Start Screen (So People Actually Use Them)

Office shows templates as thumbnails. A thumbnail is basically your template’s dating profile photo.
If it looks confusing, people will swipe left and go back to “Blank document” like it’s their comfort food.

Simple design rules that prevent template chaos

• Start clean: Make the first page/slide a neat cover or example page.
• Name it like a human: “Invoice – Simple” beats “final_v3_REAL_template.dotx”.
• Include instructions: Add a subtle “Replace text here” note where needed.
• Use consistent branding: Fonts, colors, and headers should match your style guide.

Pro move: create a mini “template library” inside the folder

Office 2013 can be inconsistent about subfolders showing up the way you expect across apps,
but you can still keep order by using a naming convention:
Dept – Template Name (example: “HR – Offer Letter”, “Sales – Proposal Deck”).
That way they sort together in the Personal gallery without you needing to invent a new filing system.

Want a Shared Template Gallery for a Team?

If you want everyone to see the same templates (branding, legal-approved language, the “don’t change this” boilerplate),
store templates in a shared folder and point each Office app’s Default personal templates location
to that shared path.

What a shared setup looks like

• Network share example: \ServerCompanyTemplatesOffice2013
• OneDrive/SharePoint sync example: a synced folder on each PC (great for remote teams)

The key is consistency: every user needs the same path configured in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
If one person points to a different folder, they’ll be the one asking, “Why don’t I have the template?”
and everyone will pretend they’re on mute while rolling their eyes.

Troubleshooting: When the Personal Tab Is Missing (or Empty)

Problem: There’s no “Personal” tab at all

• Cause: The default personal templates location is blank or not set.
• Fix: Set it in File > Options > Save, restart the app.
• Also check: You have at least one template file in the folder. Some configurations won’t show the tab if it’s empty.

Problem: Templates are in the folder, but they don’t show up

• Check file type: Make sure it’s .dotx/.xltx/.potx (or macro-enabled equivalents).
• Check location: Confirm the exact folder path in Options matches where the files actually are.
• Restart matters: Close all Office apps and reopen (yes, really).
• Permissions: If it’s a shared folder, confirm users have read access.

Problem: Macro-enabled templates trigger warnings every time

If you’re using .dotm/.xltm/.potm templates (macros), Office may warn users depending on Trust Center settings.
A common approach is to use a Trusted Location for your templates folderonly if you truly trust the source.

1. Open the Office app.
2. Go to File > Options.
3. Click Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.
4. Choose Trusted Locations > Add new location.
5. Select your templates folder, save changes, and restart the app.

Security reality check: Trusted Locations bypass some security checks. Don’t point this at a random shared drive
where anyone can drop files. That’s not a template library; that’s a horror movie plot.

Make the Start Screen Work for You (Instead of the Other Way Around)

Option A: Keep the Start screen (and make it useful)

Once Personal templates appear, the Start screen becomes a quick launcher: pick a template and go.
You can also “pin” frequently used files (and even folders) in the Open/Recent area so you spend less time browsing
through the same maze every day.

Option B: Turn off the Start screen (but still use templates)

If you’d rather open a blank file immediately, you can disable the Start screen in each app:
File > Options > General, then uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts.
You can still access templates anytime via File > New.

PowerPoint-only nerd corner: default to the Personal tab

Some organizations want PowerPoint to land on Personal by default (so nobody “accidentally” picks a neon gradient template
that looks like a tech conference from 2009). There are registry-based approaches that can set the default tab behavior.
If you go down this road, document what you change, and ideally have IT own the process.

Wrap-Up: The Setup Takes Minutes, the Payoff Lasts Years

Getting custom templates to appear on the Office 2013 Start screen is mostly about two things:
(1) putting templates in a known location, and (2) telling each Office app where that location is.
Once the Personal tab is alive and well, Office stops acting like your templates don’t exist.
Which is all any of us want from software: acknowledge reality and don’t make it weird.

Field Notes: of Real-World Template Wrangling

The most common “Office 2013 templates” story starts like this: someone builds a beautiful templateperfect margins,
polished cover page, branded colors, even a friendly note that says “Replace this text.” Then they email it to the team.
For a week, everything is fine. People open it from the email, make a document, and move on. Then the email disappears
into the void (or gets buried under 147 “Quick question” threads), and suddenly the template is “gone.”
It’s not gone. It’s just living in a place no one remembers.

When teams switch to the Custom Office Templates folder (or a shared template folder), something magical happens:
the template becomes a tool, not a file someone once sent. New hires don’t need a scavenger hunt.
Managers stop asking, “Can someone forward me that template?” like it’s a family recipe. And the unofficial company motto
stops being “Just use the old doc and change the date.”

One pattern you’ll notice quickly: people don’t just want templatesthey want confidence.
They want to click “Personal,” choose “Proposal,” and trust that it’s the current, approved version.
The moment you have two versions floating around (“Proposal Template – New” and “Proposal Template – REALLY New”),
the system breaks. This is why naming conventions are underrated. A simple scheme like “Dept – Purpose”
or “Brand – Document Type” prevents the gallery from turning into a junk drawer.

Another practical lesson: thumbnails matter more than anyone admits. If your template thumbnail looks like a blank page,
users assume it’s… a blank page. If the first page includes a clean cover with a title and a subtle “Sample Layout”
label, users immediately understand what they’re getting. Think of it as the difference between a labeled light switch
and flipping random switches until something happens.

Finally, macro-enabled templates deserve adult supervision. In some environments, macros are essential (automated reports,
formatting buttons, smart forms). In others, macros are basically treated like contraband. If macros are part of your workflow,
the Trusted Location approach can reduce frictionbut it also increases responsibility. The “trusted” part is doing real work there.
A locked-down, managed template folder is your friend. A wide-open share where anyone can drop files is… not.
When in doubt, keep macro templates in a controlled location and let IT define the rulebook.

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