Dynamic document creation from form picks?

[hkrause]

We frequently create documents, which are collections of document portions
that vary according to product type, options, etc. For example, there will
be a common introduction and warranty, then installation instructions based
on product and several other sections that might or might not be included
based on product options. Currently, someone marks up a form indicating
which sections should be included and sends that to another person, who
manually pulls together all the document portions, customizes some of the
text based on the job, and puts it together into a document package. Most of
the included documents are Word files or PDFs.

I'm looking for a way to help automate part or all of this procedure. Folks
would *like* to be able to fill in an electronic form (rather than doing it
by hand), and have the relevant document portions be assembled
auto-magically, with a few text portions filled in based on form text field
input. Other methods of automation would also be considered... I just don't
know what's out there.

I'd be happy to know of some off-the-shelf product that would accomplish
this. If nothing quite fits the bill, is this something that could be
programmed? If so, what do I need to be looking at? For reference, they're
currently using Office 97, although I'm sure they would upgrade to something
more current if needed to make use of features that would help accomplish
this.

Thanks for any input. I'm a PC Tech rather than high-end Office user, so
I'm not familiar with what tools I need to accomplish this.

 

[Gordon Bentley-Mix]

Word comes with all the tools you need to do this in the form of Visual
Basic for Applications, also known as VBA or macros. There are many
excellent resources available online to assist you, but my recommendation
would be to employ the services of a good Word developer as it will probably
be cheaper and easier in the long run. (And no, I'm not shilling for
business - I have quite enough to do thank you! ;-D)

Regardless of the route you take, a good place to start is the Word MVP
website (http://word.mvps.org/). The information that you find there should
help you to make an informed decision on how to proceed.

HTH
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

Uninvited email contact will be marked as SPAM and ignored. Please post all
follow-ups to the newsgroup.

 

[hkrause]

Thanks for the info, Gordon. Since I don't use Word that much (and am still
lost, having just upgraded to 2007), I wasn't aware of the tools being there
to handle this. I'll let them know and see how they want to proceed. Maybe
I'll find a couple of good books on 2007 Word and VBA to see if it's
something I can handle.

-HK

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I should think that AutoText (and AutoTextList fields), IncludeText fields,
a UserForm or some combination of the above would do what you want.

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