Autotext Styles not moving to other machines

[GordonM]

I must be missing something here, but I have created some Autotext drop down
lists based on the instructions at
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/AutoTextList.htm. The Autotext works
fine on the machine on which it is created. However, when I move to another
machine, the Autotext Styles are not present. I am presuming that the Styles
should be carried in the document so that they can be used on whatever
machine is used to open the document. On the original machine, I saved
changes to the Normal.dot file, though I am presuming that this function is
only to update the Normal template on that machine.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you
GordonM

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

AutoText entries cannot be saved in documents. They are saved only in
templates. By default, AutoText is stored in Normal.dot, but if you want the
entries to be portable, you must create a specific document template and
store the entries there. There is a reference to this in the "Additional
tips" at the end of the cited article. For more, see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm

 

[GordonM]

Suzanne - Thank you for the information. I am not sure that I am
understanding all of this yet.

In my document (initially a .doc file), I have some lines of regular text
followed by an Autotext entry. which is then followed by more regular text.
While I am using the document on the originating machine, the Autotext entry
(if the cursor is placed somewhere on it), shows it to have the special
template that I set up to create the Autotext. Elsewhere in the document,
the template shows as Normal.dot.

Is it the first Additional Tip that you are referring to in the article that
I referred to? viz:
If you rely on different templates for different types of documents, make
sure you're editing a template when you complete the procedure described
above. At Step 7 and against Step 13, instead of pressing Alt+F3, choose
Insert |AutoText | AutoText.... and then set the LookIn list to your specific
template and click Add.

As a shot in the dark, I saved the whole document as a .dot file, but that
didn't help.

I'll see if I can learn anything from
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm.

Thank you
Gordon

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Unless you specifically stored the AutoText entries in a template other than
Normal.dot when you created them, you're going to have to use the Organizer
to move them from Normal.dot to any template you create. And you will have
to distribute this template (rather than a document) if you want to give
other users the ability to use an AutoTextList field.

 

[GordonM]

Suzanne - I am sorry, but I don't think that I am yet understanding the whole
picture, and I am not finding the referenced articles to be much help.

What I am trying to do is to generate a file, which may be a .doc file or
..dot file (I am not sure), to distribute to several other people to use on
their own machines. These users are relatively unsophisticated and I don't
what to have to ask them to manually install or modify special templates. I
would like the distributed file to contain autotext, so that these people can
use the distributed file to create their own tailored documents. Is this
possible?

What is confusing me, I think, is that my orignal file, as a new document,
starts with a normal.dot global template. My autotext generates new styles
for the autotext entries, which I presume are .dot templates (e.g. new.dot).
Then, if I save the whole file as a .dot file, I have another sort of
template. This .dot file would seem to contain other .dot templates ....
normal.dot for some of the text and new.dot for the autotext entries. So, am
I ending up with templates within a template (the final .dot file)?

Somehow, I don't think that I have "got it" yet. If you can spare more time
on this, can you please clarify.

Thank you
GordonM

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You *cannot* distribute a .doc file that will contain AutoText entries.
AutoText entries can be stored only in templates. You can save the AutoText
entries in a specific .dot file instead of Normal.dot and then distribute
that, and users can create a document based on that template or edit the
template itself (most users won't have any idea which they're doing, and
some versions of Word don't allow saving a template as a document, though
all versions will automatically create a document based on the template if
it is double-clicked outside Word).

So the bottom line is that you are going to have to store the AT entries in
a .dot file (in which you will also create your custom styles) and send that
to users. What they do with it will depend on their level of Word expertise.

 

[GordonM]

Suzanne - Thank you for your patience! What is partly confusing me is that I
thought that I had already done what you have just said. I saved a .dot file
containing some Autotext entries and then moved the file to one of my other
machines. The creating machine is running Word 2000 and the second machine
Word 2003. I don't believe that this should be a problem. Unfortunately,
the Autotext styles didn't show up on the second machine. However, now that
I am clearer about what I should be doing, I'll have another go and see what
happens.

Thank you again.

GordonM

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you had created AutoText entries in Word's built-in styles, there would
be two ways to access them:

1. By creating a new document based on your template.

2. By loading the template as an add-in (they would be added to Word's
built-in AutoText entries.

Because they are in styles that exist only in your custom template, however,
you will see them only in the template itself or documents based on that
template (you can't load the template as an add-in because add-ins can't
provide styles, only AutoText entries, macros, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts,
etc.).

When you open your template on the second machine, you should see your
styles and the AutoText entries (provided you actually saved them in that
template and not in Normal.dot), and when you create a new document based on
that template, you should get the same result.

 

[GordonM]

Well, I seem to be getting nowhere with this :-(

I can create a new template file, within which I have defined an Auto Text
List (e.g. TestList). I have defined a new template for the whole file, so
normal.dot doesn't show as the template anywhere in the file (though my
template was orignally developed from normal.dot). In my example, this list
has three lines with the text Line1, Line2 and Line3. Before I try to save
my .dot file, if I type-in TestList, TestList is offered as the
autocompletion word, which I accept. Once the word TestList is in place, if
I right click on it, I can select Line1, Line2 or Line3. This is what I want
..... so far so good.

However, if I now save the template (.dot) file and try to exit, before
saving and exiting is completed, I am told that changes have been made which
affect normal.dot .. do I want to update normal.dot. I am presuming that I
should not change normal.dot, as this is specific to the machine on which I
am creating the template and any updating won't affect (and one wouldn't want
this) normal.dot on any other machine.

If I don't agree to save changes to normal.dot, if I then open my created
..dot template file, a field is still showing, which should contain the
options Line1, Line2, or Line3. However, this is not the case. I am offered
the long list of standard autotext entries and the list doesn't include the
autotext item that I created. Also, if I type in the name of my autotext
entry, I am not offered any autocompletion on the name and, of course, no
field is created on which to right click.

Clearly, I have still not done the right thing to carry the information that
I need in my template file.

Any idea what I have missed?

Thank you.

GordonM

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When you save the AutoText entries (all of them, both the list members and
the AutoTextList field itself), do you have "Look in" set to your template
rather than "All active templates"? Even when you're editing a custom
template, the default setting is "All active templates," and if you press
Alt+F3 to create a new entry without changing this setting, it will be
stored in Normal.dot.

 

[GordonM]

Suzanne - Got it, at last!! I've now tried it on 4 different machines. Your
most recent suggestion about "Look in" did the trick. It seems that I have
to specify to look-in the Autotext entry as a whole and also the individual
lines of the drop-down list.

Now that I have it working, I recognize what Bill Coan says in his MVP
article on Auto Text Lists. It seems obvious now!!

Thank you for all of your help and patience

GordonM

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm glad you finally got there in the end. I could have sworn I'd explicitly
mentioned "Look in" before, but I see I had not, perhaps trusting to Bill's
having mentioned it.