Custom fields

[tequila27]

I have a long Word doc and I'd like to have several user-defined fields. For
example, a few people's names, names of company organizations, URLs, a
product name, the year that the document applies to, a particular date for a
fiscal year start, etc.
Each time we revise this document, we have to do many global find/replaces.
It would feel much cleaner to do this via some variables.

The only thing that looks close are fields, but I don't know if you create
your own field names and then populate the values.

Can anyone steer me in a good direction?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have a long Word doc and I'd like to have several user-defined
fields. For example, a few people's names, names of company
organizations, URLs, a product name, the year that the document
applies to, a particular date for a fiscal year start, etc.
Each time we revise this document, we have to do many global
find/replaces. It would feel much cleaner to do this via some
variables.

The only thing that looks close are fields, but I don't know if you
create your own field names and then populate the values.

Can anyone steer me in a good direction?

Thanks in advance.

In the document's Properties dialog, click the Custom tab and create custom
properties to hold the information. In the body of the document, insert
DocProperty fields that will display the values of the properties.

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

 

[tequila27]

Jay,

Thanks for your reply. I was able to add the custom doc prop, but when I
tried to use it in the body, it wasn't listed. I did an insert/quick
parts/doc properties and my new custom doc prop wasn't in the drop-down list.
I can see it if I display the menu of all doc props, pul down the "advanced",
and go to the custom tab.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you using Insert | Field and selecting DocProperty? You should see a
list of available document properties.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Jay Freedman]

In case that isn't explicit enough: DO NOT click Document Property on
the Quick Parts menu. Instead, click Field to open the Insert Field
dialog, choose DocProperty from the list of field types, and then you
will see the custom properties in the list along with all the built-in
properties.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I didn't see anything to indicate that tequila27 is using Word 2007, so I
was hoping for the easier menu option in earlier versions.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[tequila27]

Jay,

That's not one of the choices. When I click on <Quick Parts><field...>,
my category choices are exactly these:
(All)
Date and time
Document automation
Document Information
Equations and formulas
Indexes and tables
Links and references
Mail merge
Numbering
User information

Note that none of these are DocProperty.
Also, I would think that "(All)" would show the whole list
of fields including my new custom fields,but it doesn't.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Leave the Categories dropdown set to (All). You could change it to
Document Information, but that's an extra click you don't need.

Look in the list of "Field names" just below it, scrolling that list
down through the names until you reach DocProperty. Click on
DocProperty. The center of the dialog changes to show a list of all
the properties. Scroll through that list until you find the custom
field you defined -- it *will* be in there.

 

[tequila27]

Jay,

You're the man. Thanks for walking me through the details. Sorry to be so
slow.

-Thanks.