Autotext Placeholder

[PFG]

Hello

I am just learning how to use use autotext and I hope there is a solution to
this problem.

I know you can use "filename" and "page X of Y" as autotext placeholders in
the footers of each page but can you do the same with the content of a cell?


I am making a standardized letter which is going to be 3 pages long. The
subject of the letter, a person's name, will appear near the top of the
first page in a certain cell for every letter I write. I would like to
automatically have that name (or whatever is in that cell) appear in the
footer of all three pages (together with page X of Y) so that if any page
gets separated and jumbled with other letters, I can easily figure it out.

Thanks

Patrick

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Patrick,

For what you want to do, AutoText is not really the appropriate feature,
just by the way. AutoText as you mention it is just serving as a quick way
of entering certain fields in the header, but AutoText isn't necessary to
your situation.

The basic solution here is a Ref field (short for reference). You put a
field in the footer that references something in the body of the letter.

There are several different types of Ref fields that can be used, and I
don't mess around with many of them, so I'm just pointing you in some
possible directions. Post back with results/problems (I was gonna
experiment, but no time--or you might get a more concrete post from someone
else)

The standard referencing options are explained on this page:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Repeating_Data.htm
It gives you several options--choose which one is best for you.
It's written for WinWord, but I think it translates to the Mac pretty
easily--keyboard shortcuts use command instead of control and see here if
you are not familiar with fields:
http://word.mvps.org/MacWordNew/fieldsinmacword.htm
(hit refresh a few times in Safari, or use a different browser)

Why is the person's name in a cell? In a table cell? Why? (I have a
feeling that this was an design decision made to workaround something
else...)

The Help topic "Referencing cells in a table" might help out. I have no
idea whether what it explains applies also to text.

By the way, you aren't using Mail Merge to create the letters, are you?
That would be a different solution.

Hope that helps,

 

[Michel Bintener]

Hi, now that Daiya has given you a couple of general instructions, here's
how I would proceed. I'm aware that there are a number of ways of doing
this, and some might be easier than the one I'm going to suggest, but this
one works for me: first of all, you need to be familiar with styles. (Check
this website http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/ for more details in case you
don't know what styles are.) Then, create your table at the top of the first
page, and select the cell in which you're going to insert the recipient's
name. Go to Format>Style, and select a style which you want to use (Choose
one which you're only going to use once, for that specific cell; you can
always create a new one, if you want to. Also, make sure that the style is
formatted according to your preferences. You can find more information on
formatting styles on the website I referred you to.) Now, select the footer,
and click Insert>Field. In the window that shows up, enter STYLEREF "[name
of the style you've chosen]" then hit OK. You will now see a message along
the lines of "Error! Style not defined" in the footer, and that's okay. As
soon as you enter a name in the cell you've specified and you either update
your fields or simply switch out of Page Layout view and back, you'll see
that name repeated in the footer.

I do realise that, depending on your level of confidence with Word, this
answer might have been a serious overkill; if anything's unclear, post back.
Also, somebody else might have an easier, more user-friendly solution, so
you might just want to wait for some time. The only thing I can tell you is
that the method I've just suggested, (overly?) complicated as it is, *does*
work, and if you save your document as a template, you'll only have to do
all that work once.

 

[PFG]

I tried the fix using Styles as suggested (instead of Autotext) and I got as
far as constructing the footer and getting the error message "Error! Style
not defined" as you said I would.

The problem is, when I tried it out (put a name in the cell, switched out of
and into page layout view, saved document, reopen etc.) the error message
was still there and the name was not copied into that field.

Did I miss a step?

Thanks

 

[Michel Bintener]

Okay, what exactly did you enter in the Fields textbox? Just to make sure,
it has to be STYLEREF (get rid of the "=" sign that is there by default),
followed by a space, then the opening quotation mark, the name of your style
(unlike the STYLEREF, your style name does not have to be entirely
capitalised; just write it the way you usually would), then the concluding
quotation marks. See if that solves the problem.

But here's another way of doing it, just to make sure that there are no
typos in the field formula: in the Insert Field dialogue, select Links and
References from the Categories list on the left side; scroll down in the
Field names box on the right side until you see StyleRef, then click on it.
STYLEREF should now appear in the textbox below. Now click on the Options
button below the textbox, and in the Field Options dialogue, switch to the
Styles tab. Select the style you want to use, then click on Add to Field. It
should now appear in the textbox in quotation marks. Hit OK twice to get out
of the Fields dialogue and get back to your document. (Can you see why I
thought that adding the STYLEREF text manually was less of a hassle?) Now
try to switch out of Page Layout view (into Normal, for instance) and back.
Also, don't forget to enter a text in that cell, otherwise, you won't see
anything. If you still can't see anything, make sure that the style in
question is actually applied to the cell. I know, these things are kind of
obvious, but it's usually these tiny errors that keep us busy for days and
days.

Let me know if it worked out alright.
Michel