Editing Resulting AutoText Entries

[Officeoceans]

I've been reading too many posts and have probably confused myself to the
point that I have to ask this question ...
I have AutoText entires stored in a custom template. I make new documents
based on this template using AutoText entries and save those documents with a
new name. After I choose an AutoText entry, there is variable information
that I manually insert into those AutoText entries (still working on this
part-another question at a later date). Will my manipulated AutoText entries
always appear as I have edited them in the newly saved documents and will
that manipulated text appear as it should on another computer that does not
have the custom .dot template? I'm asking this question because I noticed
that when I edit the AutoText entry I usually extend selections to the end of
a line, etc. and sometimes my selection goes back to the beginning of the
AutoText entry and selects everything unless I'm specific in my selection and
just jump from word to word. I hope I explained myself and I hope the answer
is "yes ... your text will be there forever and always as edited and saved in
the new document !?" Thanks in advance.

 

[Dawn Crosier, Word MVP]

Once you edit text in your document, it will be there until you change it
again as long as you properly save your document.

Once you edit an AutoText entry in a template, that will be stored in that
template until you make a change as long as you properly save the template.

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
I've been reading too many posts and have probably confused myself to the
point that I have to ask this question ...
I have AutoText entires stored in a custom template. I make new documents
based on this template using AutoText entries and save those documents with
a
new name. After I choose an AutoText entry, there is variable information
that I manually insert into those AutoText entries (still working on this
part-another question at a later date). Will my manipulated AutoText
entries
always appear as I have edited them in the newly saved documents and will
that manipulated text appear as it should on another computer that does not
have the custom .dot template? I'm asking this question because I noticed
that when I edit the AutoText entry I usually extend selections to the end
of
a line, etc. and sometimes my selection goes back to the beginning of the
AutoText entry and selects everything unless I'm specific in my selection
and
just jump from word to word. I hope I explained myself and I hope the
answer
is "yes ... your text will be there forever and always as edited and saved
in
the new document !?" Thanks in advance.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If I understand what you're asking, then what you need to do, instead of
inserting AutoText entries in your docs, is insert AutoText *fields*. Then
if you modify the AutoText entry and update the fields, the fields will
reflect the current content of the entry. Note that it is not possible to
"edit" AutoText entries directly (in the AutoText dialog); you have to
create a new entry and save it under the same name.

Another approach to this sort of thing is IncludeText fields; see
http://daiya.mvps.org/includetext.htm

 

[Officeoceans]

Thanks Dawn! I believe I'm properly saving my document as File, Save As, a
..doc file. When I need to change an AutoText entry in my template for future
use I use File, Open and open the appropriate .dot file, play the AutoText,
make changes and resave it. I was just getting a little leery about
automatic changes happening or my text not appearing at all!

 

[Officeoceans]

Thank you for your explanation Suzanne! I understand that I cannot edit an
AutoText entry directly and then have that new entry for later use. I read
the portion of IncludeText field on the mvps site but I won't need to update
any AutoText entries in documents that are already created from the template.
I believe Kaiser Jonesy posed a question similar to mine in "Using if
formulas in mail merge" on 2/27 under MailMerge and Fax where Graham Mayor
suggests that possibly it is not a merge at all and suggested UserForms to
gather the variable data. In a nutshell, (but abbreviated) my AutoText
entires are something like "Information Found" or "Information Not Found" and
the AutoText entry looks like "No information was found for CLIENT NAME,
CLIENT ADDRESS, SSN" or "Information was found for CLIENT NAME, CLIENT
ADDRESS, SSN". Do you think I would be going about this the right way using
UserForms to gather the variable data? I have probably 40 fields of variable
data. Hmmmm. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, this seems to me more efficient for this type of application. If you
write the data collected by the UserForm to document properties, then you
can use DocProperty fields to insert them in the document (or in the
AutoText entry), and they will update automatically.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Unless you use autotext fields, autotext entries enter the text as if it had
been entered from the keyboard.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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