Help - Updating a document

[Steve]

I woulds appreciate some direction. I have a large word 2003 document with
300 plus pages requiring weekly updates. Spread within the large document
are many technical sentences (could be as much as a paragraph) which change
wording and/or number values.

I have a second document, which I call a master, I have a simple two column
word table with about 120 rows. Column 1 is just a row number, column two
is the technical sentence.

What I need to set up is a way to insert a code of some type in the large
document so that the sentences are replaced from this table (I could just as
easy use an excel sheet if that would be easier). What I need to do is
after I update the table, then somehow update the large document with the
new sentences. I should add, the large document is not a boilerplate type
so a word template mailmerge does not seem to fit the case. Also, the
sentences in my master appear at random and often repeat themselves in the
large document.

Steve

 

[Guest]

Steve,

What you are asking is very possible. I do need a little more information
though. But the first thing I thought of was hyperlinks, you can basically
hyperlink to just about anything in the world and from one point in the
document to the other. I would also consider using Excel for you document
that is using two columns, one being numbers and the other being text.
Remember you can have the Excel document print out just like it does in Word.
Also with Excel, when data or text is one cell and if you were typing that
same data or text in another cell, it pops right in there for you so that you
do not have to retype it. Sort of like Auto Correct does in Word, and on
that note, you can also add a lot of the text that is being repeated to Auto
Correct, just highlight it and add to the Auto Correct. And going back to
Excel, you can create formulas so that if one cell equals something it can go
to wherever the formula is pointing and so on.

Hope this helps.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

An IncludeText field will pull text from a different document, and the field
can be updated to match text changed in the other document. Start by looking
it up in Help, post back if you run into problems.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

My first thought was IncludeText but other options include document
properties (inserted via DocProperty fields), document variables (which
require VBA), and AutoText fields. AutoText entries can't be updated--they
have to be recreated--but AutoText fields are certainly easy to insert.

If you do choose to use IncludeText fields, note that you will need to
bookmark each chunk of text; you can then insert the field using Insert |
File, selecting the bookmark as the "range." But when you replace the text
in your master file, you may need to reapply the bookmark.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Steve]

Well I'm getting closer, I saved my master as an excel file. I inserted the
IncludeText field with the path to the excel master. And it inserts the
entire file.

How do I tell it I want only the text from cell B41 without any format carry
over?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Why did you save it as an excel file? That's not necessary. You can do all
this in Word. (the guy who suggested excel was wrong)

See Suzanne's post about bookmarking each chunk of text.

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Sorry...I rarely use Excel these days...so I don't know how to do it
with Excel included...just Word to Word as previously explained.

Good luck...
Dian ~

 

[Steve]

OOOOOOOOKKKKKKK, back to word... And the word table, if I understand this
correctly, in the master document I bookmark the contains of each cell in
column two (120 or so). And in the Large document I insert the IncludeText
field with the path/file name and the specific bookmark name.

The reason I jumped on excel was that I thought I might bypass the manual
bookmark process by using the cell location, i.e., B2, B15 etc... It works
to a degree, but it insert a single cell table, not the contents of the cell
to be used in normal sentence structure. Also, that's the way I receive my
updates, our access database generates an excel spreadsheet which I copy
over to a word table for ease of use to cut & paste to my large document.
It would cut that extra step out and make life sweeter...

Steve

 

[hans_goppka]

Yup...that's it.

By the way...if this info is in Access...you CAN just link your doc
right to the specific data in Access through ADO. Then when you open
your document, the data would be pulled right from Access. Granted,
this takes some knowledge of VBA...but I just wanted to pass that
along so you know there IS a more direct way if that might work for
you. In fact, using the same technology, you can even do that to Excel
if you code it as links.

I don't know if this will fit what you're doing, since I don't
understand your whole process, but I do this all the time with
documents and forms. Say you get data each month or whatever and it's
fairly consistant...you could set up the Word doc to allow you to type
in some range and that'll query the DB, pull that data and enter it
into the specific locations. Just a though.

Note that if you want to see how this words...I have a sample with
open code for ADO. Go here:
http://www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html#autoforms and scroll down to
the # 5 article in the Please Fill Out This Form series. Download the
sample and mess with it as per the article and instructions for the
download. It should you how you can enter info into a form and have it
passed to a DB without retyping...or pull data from a DB to populate a
form.

Good luck...

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free MS Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Yup...that's it.

By the way...if this info is in Access...you CAN just link your doc
right to the specific data in Access through ADO. Then when you open
your document, the data would be pulled right from Access. Granted,
this takes some knowledge of VBA...but I just wanted to pass that
along so you know there IS a more direct way if that might work for
you. In fact, using the same technology, you can even do that to Excel
if you code it as links.

I don't know if this will fit what you're doing, since I don't
understand your whole process, but I do this all the time with
documents and forms. Say you get data each month or whatever and it's
fairly consistant...you could set up the Word doc to allow you to type
in some range and that'll query the DB, pull that data and enter it
into the specific locations. Just a though.

Note that if you want to see how this words...I have a sample with
open code for ADO. Go here:
http://www.mousetrax.com/techpage.html#autoforms and scroll down to
the # 5 article in the Please Fill Out This Form series. Download the
sample and mess with it as per the article and instructions for the
download. It should you how you can enter info into a form and have it
passed to a DB without retyping...or pull data from a DB to populate a
form.

Good luck...

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free MS Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html