How to make business cards in Microsoft Word

Step 1: Pick a template

First, open Microsoft Word. Choose File > New. From here, you can search for Microsoft Word templates. While making your selection, remember: when using Word 2013, make sure the template you select is compatible with the current version. If it has deprecated elements, it may harm your computer or not display correctly.

While you can add shapes directly to a page in Word, you may want to contain them within a Drawing Canvas instead. A canvas acts as a container for your flowchart, so instead of moving each element individually, you can position a chart with a single click. Canvases can also be styled to add polish to your flowchart. To insert a canvas, click the Insert tab and select Shapes. Scroll to the bottom of the panel and click the menu item labeled “New Drawing Canvas.”

Step 2: Add your information

The template we’ve selected is fairly straightforward: it includes colorful blocks, the company name, and contact information, which are the basics you need for a business card.

Now we fill in the personal information. Don’t forget to proofread every detail on the card. It’s a good idea to have a friend or colleague take a look at your business card template to catch any typos you may have missed. Here’s what the card looks like with default fonts and colors.

Step 3: Customize Your Card

If you want your business card to be more personalized than the template, it doesn’t take much to adjust the fonts, colors, and shapes to reflect your style. We’ve changed the company name to a serif font, and the contact information to a sans serif one.

Try adding a shadow to the shapes. Right click on your shape, then select Format Shape. This will bring up a formatting panel on the right side of your canvas. You can also click on the Format tab to expand options for your shape. Here, we’ve done a drop shadow on all three shapes. This is what the card looks like now:

The default colors use warm shades—vermillion, green, and beige. You may decide that cool colors would better project your desired image. To use preset color themes, select the Design tab.

Step 4: Make a sheet of business cards

Depending on how up-to-date your template is, it might auto-populate to update every card to match. If you’re using an older template, simply copy and paste the information from one card into every other slot. Here’s what a sheet of business cards looks like in Microsoft Word when completed.

Step 5: Use a ruler or gird

When designing visual documents like business cards, it can sometimes be useful to create a more design-centric canvas, by enabling the ruler or the grid. Click on the View tab and check the Ruler and Gridlines boxes. Here’s what our business cards look like with this style of canvas. This can be helpful if you have specific layout needs for your business cards.

Step 6: Share your business cards

Now that you’ve designed your business cards, it’s time to print them. We suggest sharing your document with a professional printer to ensure the highest quality for the final product. From Word, you can download your file in a variety of formats, including .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Then, it’s a good idea to save your file to cloud storage, so it won’t get lost if your computer crashes!

You can experiment with home printing from Word. Standard business card size in the U.S. is 3.5 inches by 2 inches. Avery is a common business card paper manufacturer: their business card templates come with ten cards per sheet. To print, use Ctrl (Cmd) + P and use Word's printing dialog.