Word for church office

The way Reverse Dictionary works is pretty simple. It simply looks through tonnes of dictionary definitions and grabs the ones that most closely match your search query. For example, if you type something like «longing for a time in the past», then the engine will return «nostalgia». The engine has indexed several million definitions so far, and at this stage it’s starting to give consistently good results (though it may return weird results sometimes). It acts a lot like a thesaurus except that it allows you to search with a definition, rather than a single word. So in a sense, this tool is a «search engine for words», or a sentence to word converter.

I made this tool after working on Related Words which is a very similar tool, except it uses a bunch of algorithms and multiple databases to find similar words to a search query. That project is closer to a thesaurus in the sense that it returns synonyms for a word (or short phrase) query, but it also returns many broadly related words that aren’t included in thesauri. So this project, Reverse Dictionary, is meant to go hand-in-hand with Related Words to act as a word-finding and brainstorming toolset. For those interested, I also developed Describing Words which helps you find adjectives and interesting descriptors for things (e.g. waves, sunsets, trees, etc.).

In case you didn’t notice, you can click on words in the search results and you’ll be presented with the definition of that word (if available). The definitions are sourced from the famous and open-source WordNet database, so a huge thanks to the many contributors for creating such an awesome free resource.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: Elastic Search, @HubSpot, WordNet, and @mongodb.

Please note that Reverse Dictionary uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy.

Microsoft Word gets a bad rap when it comes to design tools. When you think of designing in Word, do you see pixelated clip art and hot pink Comic Sans? Thankfully, it’s not 1999 any more!

While designing in Word can be frustrating, using this software doesn’t mean your documents need to be ugly or plain. When everyone in your church office, not to mention all of your volunteers, already have Word and know how to use it, it’s a great software solution for your group. (There’s even a free online version, which is awesome when multiple users need to work on the same document.)

Themes, styles, and—most importantly—templates can all help you maintain consistent branding without asking a designer or the communications person to clean up each and every document.

Try these six tips, and you’ll see how easy it is to improve the aesthetic appearance of Word documents.

1—Use a Template

Templates can function as a good starting point when creating a new Word document. With placeholder text and basic formatting already in place, you can modify the fonts, colors, and spacing as needed (see #3 below) without starting from scratch.

Microsoft Word Online offers a large number of templates. I particularly like the Simple Cover Letter and Meeting Notes, both of which are bold and modern. (Don’t feel restricted by the names; both of these work for more than just letters or meeting notes.) The Business Trip Checklist is also great for any checklist.

2—Use a Theme

Nine times out of ten, I go with a blank document and then choose a theme. Themes are a collection of paragraph and character styles.

Once you apply a theme, apply the paragraph and character styles within it to quickly apply fonts, sizes, colors, and spacing. You can always check to see where those styles are applied within a document using the Styles window. I’m a fan of the bright, casual themes like Pixel, Summer, or Waveform, as well as the more professional look of themes like Black Tie, Formal, or Median.

In the examples below, I’ve applied Title, Heading 1, and Normal paragraph styles, along with Strong character style. Here is the theme Pixel:

Next, here’s the same document, but with the theme Formal:

Once styles are applied, it’s easy to completely change the appearance of your document, just by switching themes!

3—Make It Your Own (Change & Create Styles)

Take themes to the next level by modifying or adding styles.

If you want to keep your modifications for future documents, save a custom theme. Unfortunately, this custom theme will only be saved on your computer. Saving your document as template (see tip #4 below) will let other users easily apply your custom theme as well.

4—Create a Template (Save As Template)

According to Microsoft, “a template is a document type that creates a copy of itself when you open it.” By saving your Word document as a template, you can keep all of the great visual improvements you just made AND let everyone else easily use the look in their future docs. Your custom templates can even be used with Word Online.

When making a template, include placeholder text to demonstrate the styles available in the document, as well as how to use them. You can label each section logically, such as the examples in tip #2. For placeholder body copy, use Lorem Ipsum text from a website like Lipsum Generator. 

For a longer document, insert page breaks to ensure that odd divisions don’t happen in new documents. For instance, you wouldn’t want a new title or heading 1 styled line to fall at the very bottom of the page, only to have the body copy that follows it on the next page.

Save your template to a network drive in the office or to a cloud-based drive. Other users can then easily use your theme and styles in each new document they create. It’s a win-win!

5—Install Free Fonts

When you want to branch outside of the system fonts to elevate your design or stay on brand—or, when you’re working with a large group of volunteers who all may have different fonts installed on their computers—try using free downloadable fonts.

I like using Google Fonts (not all are downloadable, but many are), Font Squirrel, or DaFont. Keep in mind that not every free font online is available for commercial use. Some require a donation to the designer or are limited to personal use only.

Learn more about successfully combining fonts, as well as some good Google Font combinations to try, in my previous blog post.

6—Choose Your Own Colors

While Word does offer a decent variety of standard color themes, they’ve been around for a while. Update and customize the look of a theme with your own color palette. You can apply these by creating your own color theme. Or, you can further refine the design by changing the color of each style individually.

Encourage your office and volunteers to use templates that best fit your church’s brand to elevate the look of the documents and create design consistency.

 Learn more about how to unify your church’s brand strategy with the free eBook: The Beginner’s Guide to Communicating Your Brand for Churches. 

The Church Officers List Template below is available absolutely free to use in your church administrative office…and customize to fit your church needs.

Churches use this form to list their church officers at the same time every year depending on their church’s preference. This necessary to update at least once a year to ensure accuracy in the church officers position, name, address, phone numbers, email address and similar information.

The template below for listing your church officers includes:

• Please use this form to list your church officers for the 20__ church
  year. A maximum of 14 officers’ listings can appear on each page; other
  officers’ names will be placed on various mailing lists for use by Conference
  Departmental personnel. Please note that
  officer listings shown with asterisk (*) are required information. If you
  area codes/phone prefixes have changed, please be sure to list them. If
  directions to the church have changed, please update them at the end of this
  form. Please TYPE OR PRINT ONLY
  names, addresses and zip codes and check for accuracy. Email your completed
  report to [Name of Contact Person in Charge of This Form or Report] or mail your list to [Church Office Full Mailing Address] to arrive by [Date of Deadline for Report to Be Turned In], [Time of Deadline for Report to Be Turned In].
  Faxed reports can be accepted if they
  are typed or printed. Fax to [Fax Number]. Thank you for your
  prompt help.
• Church Name, Phone Number, Street Address, City, State and Zip Code, Fax Number, Email Address, and Website
• Attn: Mail Address (Use post office box is valid: large packages cannot be sent to post office box.)
• Bulk Mail Address (Use street address only: bulk mail cannot be sent to post office box.)
• Sunday School Begins at [Time], Worship Service Begins [Time], Bilingual Services [Time], We have regular mid-week meetings on this day [Day of Week], At this time [Time], Church Secretary [Church Secretary’s Name], Email [Church Secretary’s Email Address]
• Position of Church Officers along with Name, Address, Home and Cell Phone Number, and Email Address
• Please update directions to your church:
  Please double check the directions to
  your church and make the necessary corrections! The directions should begin
  from the Conference office to your church.
• Name of Person Filling out the Form and Phone Number
  

Click on the link to download the List for Church Officers Template below:

Church Officers List Template

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