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TONGUE AND QUILL TEMPLATES USER’S GUIDE
AFH 33-337, Tongue and Quill, provides the formatting standards and guidelines for several types of
official Air Force documents as derived from AFMAN 33-326, Preparing Official Communications. While
the Tongue and Quill has historically had visual examples of document formatting for users to follow,
actually replicating those standards was left as an exercise for the user. In order to reduce duplication
of effort across the Air Force, Microsoft Word templates for the most common Air Force document
formats are now available through e-Publishing and preloaded into Air Force computers with the AF
Standard Desktop Configuration for:
Official Memorandum
Official Biography
Personal Letter
Talking Paper
Point Paper
Bullet Background Paper
Background Paper
Position Paper
These templates provide the basic formatting rules and technical setup – margins, font size, page layout,
and so on – which should save users time and effort in finding a “good” template to work from or,
worse, building a document from scratch. This User Guide provides instructions on the best way to use
these templates, as well as instructions on modifying them for more specific use needs.
Note: These templates provide the basic, catch-all formatting rules for their document types. They should
not be used in replacement of the Tongue and Quill, as they do not include full detail on all formatting
rules, optional styles, or conditional cases. Additionally, check to see if your command supplements
AFMAN 33-326, or if there are operating instructions or local guidance on document standards.
Using the Templates
The official templates are provided as Microsoft Word Template files (“.DOTX”). Whenever you open a
template file, rather than opening the template itself, you will create a new “Document 1” based on the
template’s content and formatting. In this way, you don’t need to worry about accidentally modifying or
overwriting the template – though doing so intentionally is possible, and the steps for doing so are
described in a later section. Once you have created a new document from the template, adding content
is as simple as replacing the placeholder text with your own – formatting such as margins, spacing,
indents, and the like are all handled automatically through the templates’ built-in rules and styles.
Where to Find the Templates
The templates are available in two places: on Air Force E-Publishing, and preloaded into Air Force
computers with the AF Standard Desktop Configuration.
On Air Force E-Publishing (https://www.e-publishing.af.mil), go to the home page and click on “Items of
Interest.” Click to download the template you need and save it somewhere on your local computer.
Then, just double-click on the template file to open a new document based on that template. Note E-