Reference a "cell" in Word (like Excel can)

[Jim Henderson]

Sometimes I have a document that has a few pieces of text that will change,
but that appear many times throughout the document in different places. If
I have the same situation in Excel, I can reference that cell from several
(hundreds even) other cells in the spreadsheet. When the "master cell"
changes, they all change with it. Is there a similar way to reference some
text in Word that will automatically update all the references to it when
the master text is changed?

Thanks.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

Yes and no. The easy way is with an online form, but that has real
limitations. The advantages are that the updating is automatic. For more
about online forms, follow the links at <URL:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/FillinTheBlanks.htm> especially Dian
Chapman's series of articles.

You can bookmark any text and use a REF field to replay the bookmarks
contents elsewhere. Online forms automatically bookmark variable text.
Except in forms, REF fields require that you do something to update them.
Also bookmarks are fragile, invisible, and easily deleted by accident.

Finally, within a table, for some purposes, you can refer to the contents of
a table cell by reference, i.e., A3.

Hope this helps,
--

Charles Kenyon

See the MVP FAQ: <URL: http://www.mvps.org/word/> which is awesome!
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[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Jim,

Charles outlines some approaches. There's one more that he doesn't mention,
assuming the cell content is numeric:

Select the entire table and apply a bookmark to it (Insert/Bookmark, the
example below: MyTable)

Now you can display the (numeric!) content anywhere in the document using a
formula field:
{ = Sum(MyTable A2) }

Sometimes I have a document that has a few pieces of text that will change,
but that appear many times throughout the document in different places. If
I have the same situation in Excel, I can reference that cell from several
(hundreds even) other cells in the spreadsheet. When the "master cell"
changes, they all change with it. Is there a similar way to reference some
text in Word that will automatically update all the references to it when
the master text is changed?

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow question or
reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Jim Henderson]

Thanks Cindy,

That works great! Thanks for the tip. Is there any easy way to "Update
Field" other than right-clicking or pull down menu? In Excel F9 updates all
the formula in the entire worksheet (if set to Manual Update). An "Alt-A"
and "Update Field" seems to accomplish that, but table formula updates
always seem a bit messy. There appears to be no "Automatic Update" in Word
as there in Excel.

Thanks again.

 

[Graham Mayor]

The fields in Word do not automatically update - but you can force an
update. Switching to print preview then back again will usually do it - you
could record that as a macro action - or you could use a more thorough macro
code, of which there's an example at
http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm. Either macro could be run from a
toolbar button or as an exit macro from a form field.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

Web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site www.mvps.org/word
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>>< ><<>

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Jim,

Is there any easy way to "Update
Field" other than right-clicking or pull down menu?

If you have the cursor on/in a field, then F9 will do it in
Word, too. For the entire document body, besides the
approaches Graham mentions, one I use quite often is
Ctrl+A, F9.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update
Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Jim Henderson]

That does seem to do the trick. I was able to reference several of the
cells in the bookmarked table and insert them into a "block" of text, that
was really a single cell in a new table. Taking off the table borders makes
it look like any other text paragraph in the document.

Thanks again. Jim H. (Minneapolis, Minnesota)