Using Crop and Lock and Screen Ruler to Help Convert Templates

The Crop and Lock and Screen Ruler tools available with the Microsoft PowerToys collection can be used to more efficiently convert Word files to Excel templates.

To use these tools effectively, first you must convert the received template from Word to Excel. Using Crop and Lock and Screen Ruler, you can then easily compare and measure each element in Word and Excel documents so that the template we create is as close to customer specifications as possible.

Crop and Lock

1. Open the received template in Word.
2. In the Print window, change the zoom level of the document to “Whole Page.”
3. Use the Crop and Lock (Windows Key + Shift + Ctrl + T) to capture the full document in the Print window.

You should now have a moveable, resizable window containing the original Word template.

Screen Ruler

1. Open the converted template in Excel and go to the Print window, setting the zoom level to “Whole Page.”
2. Place your cropped window beside your Excel Print preview.

Use the Screen Ruler (Windows Key + Shift + Ctrl + M) to first measure distance between elements in the Word template (the cropped window you made earlier). Next, measure the distance between those same elements on the Excel template. The readouts (shown in pixel count) will give you a rough idea of how much to adjust the Excel template. Keep measuring until both measurements for each element are within a few pixels of one another.

Note: To accurately use the Screen Ruler, you must first measure that both windows have the same length and width using the ruler.