document automation question

[Chip Orange]

I'm creating a template for others to use to help them create a rather
complex document. The template currently has a lot of text, with structured
formatting, and many "place holders" where the user is instructed to "click
here to enter ...". They need to much editing control to make this a form.

This "section" of the document that I've constructed is complex, and may be
repeated any number of times within the document.

At first, I was expecting them to copy and paste it as necessary to
construct a new section as needed. This would be awkward for them, and more
so because they may not know they need another one of these sections until
they've constructed the first one, so they wouldn't have the "place holders"
to make it easy for them on the subsequent creations.

My next thought was to record a VBA macro of me creating this complex
section, then tie it to a button that they could press each time they needed
another new "blank" section.

This seems hard to maintain.

Are there other approaches I might take?

thanks.

Chip

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi, Chip,

Select the entire body of the "section" of template, go to Insert >
AutoText > AutoText, change the "Look in" box to the template's name,
and enter a name. Click the Add button and close the dialog.

Now go to Tools > Customize > Commands, select AutoText on the left,
find your new entry on the right, and drag it to a toolbar. You now
have a button that will insert the complete "section" at the cursor
position, complete with placeholders.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Could you save the section as an AutoText entry and make it easily available
as a toolbar button?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Chip Orange]

thanks so much, this sounds perfect!!

Hi, Chip,

Select the entire body of the "section" of template, go to Insert >
AutoText > AutoText, change the "Look in" box to the template's name,
and enter a name. Click the Add button and close the dialog.

Now go to Tools > Customize > Commands, select AutoText on the left,
find your new entry on the right, and drag it to a toolbar. You now
have a button that will insert the complete "section" at the cursor
position, complete with placeholders.