Modifying Documents "Globally"

[Guest]

Hi. I'm working with Vista and Word 2007. I am trying to set up a system of
documents on my laptop (single computer, not a network). They will have many
similarities, and some basic information which I will occasionally need to
update in all of them. For example, when my business address changes, I will
have to go to each document and change it individually.

I've gotten the idea somewhere that Office/Word has the capability to update
one document, and have others based on it update as well. I don't know
whether this is done with "OLE", or whether there is a "global template" that
the others work off of. If it is possible, I'd like to do this. Does Word
have this capability, and if so, how is it accomplished? Thanks.

ddc

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

It can be done in a variety of ways. For what you're suggesting, the easiest
way might be to save the text (such as you business address) as an AutoText
or Building Block, and then insert occurrences of it using the AutoText
field.

There are multiple ways to do this, but here's the "long" way so you can see
the underlying mechanics:

1. In a document, type your business address as you want it to appear, then
select it.

2. In the Insert tab, click on Quick Parts - Save Selection to Quick Part
Gallery.

3. In Create New Building Block, either accept the name shown, or type
something more descriptive (such as busaddress). Set Gallery to AutoText,
set Save in: to a source file that will always be available, such as
Normal.dotm. (Note: I prefer storing AutoText in Normal.dotm because it
seems to get corrupted less often than Building Blocks.dotm; wherever you
store them, however, make backups of those files to preserve your work
investment).

4. Whenever you want a hardcoded version of your business address in a
document, just type the name (busaddress, for example), and press F3.
Whenever you want an updateable version of your business address, insert the
autotext field (easy method described here):

a. Press Ctrl+F9.

b. Type autotext "name" (e.g., autotext "busaddress") between the { } field
braces.

c. Press F9.

Thereafter, when you address changes, all you have to do is a) modify the
AutoText entry stored under that name, b) put the insertion point anywhere
inside an existing instance of the autotext field that uses the address, and
press F9 to update it.

An alternative method would be to create a single file that contains any
number of boilerplate items (such as your address), and to bookmark each
one. Then, insert references to the bookmarks in that file wherever you need
the text to appear. You would use F9 to update the fields when the
underlying text changes.

 

[Guest]

Herb:
This sounds promising, and I've gotten it to partially work. But I've run
into a couple of snags:

I highlighted my business address, and saved it to QuickParts. When I set
gallery to auto-text, and save in Normal.dotm, it works. I hit F3 after
typing busadd, and the text popped in. I noticed it didn't do it just by
spacing forward, the way autotext does when I create an autotext using a
dialog box. So I guess this creates a slightly different category of
auto-text. But it works well.

However, when I tried the Ctrl-F9 fields, and typing in the autotext (or is
it "quickpart"?) name, both with and without quotations. Each time, it came
back with an "Error! Bookmark not defined" message. This ability to update is
the really useful part--do you know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

dc

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

1. AutoText has never automatically expanded when pressing space... that's
AutoCorrect. Word 2003 and earlier had AutoComplete, which displayed a list
of possible matching AutoText items... but AutoComplete was removed (except
for dates) in Word 2007 (due to the very large number of times that it would
be activated given how many qualifying items there now are -- everything in
Building blocks.dotx plus all AutoText entries in Normal.dotm). You could,
of course, use an AutoCorrect entry for your business address, but you'd
then lose the ability to use it as a "variable", since entries are converted
to the actual text, rather than remaining as named pointers to the
underlying text.

2. The problem you're seeing with "Bookmark not defined" usually means that
the name of the autotext entry wasn't specified correctly. Unlike when
pressing F3, when using the bookmark/reference method for inserting, you
need to use the entire name (this is my guess about what's happening)... If
in doubt, you can use the ribbon-driven method:

In the Insert tab, choose Quick Parts - Field - AutoText. Under AutoText
name:, click on the target AutoText item, then click OK. Once inserted,
press Alt+F9 to toggle the field so you can observe the syntax... then
compare that with what you entered manually (i.e., using the Ctrl+F9
approach). Note that \* MERGEFORMAT, which you get when using the Field
dialog, isn't essential, and is not the source of the error you're seeing.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com