Autotext confusion

[Cranky]

Hi

I hope someone can help me as this is driving me nuts.

At work we use document imaging software, and I've been asked to set
up letter templates in tat software. They are MSWord templates which
pull in information from the imaging software, such as client's name,
address, reference and so on.

Because we process state benefits, we need to ask for a lot of proof
of what we are being told be customers. The list is a long one, so
I've set up autotext to speed things up. Proof of ID, for example,
uses the keyword 'proof.' Very straightforward. The problem that I'm
struggling with is that only myself and a colleague who's been working
with me seem to be able to get this to work either in Word proper, or
in the piggybacked Word / imaging system.

I've put the keywords and text into the main Normal.dot and in the
documents themselves. Yet somehow my colleague still gets old versions
of the text and no-one else gets anything.

We're server-based so I can't see that it's down to, say, individual
PC's, but am stumped.

Does this make any sense at all, and if so, does anyone have any
advice?

Thanks in advance

Steve

 

[Cranky]

Should have said: it's Word 2000.

Thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

I think your problem is related to this:

I've put the keywords and text into the main Normal.dot and in the
documents themselves.

First point: AutoText entries can't be stored in documents, only in
templates.
Second point: Normal.dot is specific to your computer. Other computers have
their own Normal.dot. Somehow your one colleague has an old set of entries
in his Normal.dot (maybe from an earlier test), and nobody else has them at
all.

If you've set up some kind of "shared" Normal.dot, that isn't going to work,
either (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811468 explains why).

Here's how to get this to work:

Create a different template with a different name. Use the Organizer (in
Tools > Templates & Add-Ins, click the Organizer button) to copy the
AutoText entries for your application into the new template. Store that
template in the Startup folder for Word on your computer (by default that's
at
%appdata%\microsoft\word\STARTUP
but it could have been defined to be somewhere else, so check the Tools >
Options > File Locations dialog). Now you can use the Organizer again to
remove the AutoText entries for your application from your Normal.dot. The
ones from the new template will be available in all documents (any template
stored in the Startup folder is "global" to all of Word).

Now copy the new template, and send it to all the other computers with
instructions to store it in their Startup folder.

For more background, see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AutoText.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Cranky]

Uh, I'm an idiot. I've worked out what I hadn't done. Sorry to have
bothered everyone.

Cheer

S

 

[Cranky]

Here's how to get this to work:

Create a different template with a different name. Use the Organizer (in
Tools > Templates & Add-Ins, click the Organizer button) to copy the
AutoText entries for your application into the new template. Store that
template in the Startup folder for Word on your computer (by default that's
at
%appdata%\microsoft\word\STARTUP
but it could have been defined to be somewhere else, so check the Tools >
Options > File Locations dialog). Now you can use the Organizer again to
remove the AutoText entries for your application from your Normal.dot. The
ones from the new template will be available in all documents (any template
stored in the Startup folder is "global" to all of Word).

Yeah, I got it sorted. Thank you for replying.

Best

S