Global Template - order of reads

[Diane]

Group,
Details:
I have divided autotext entries into two templates, normal.dot includes user
autotext entries, each user autotext entry begins with a ".", such as .va,
..jl, .ea. The second template called "autotext.dot" includes "group"
autotext entries that will be updated frequently from a script program. The
"autotext.dot" is included as an add-in from the MSWORD startup folder.

Problem:
Now that I have implemented this, all appeared to be good UNTIL, I have
users that have autotext entries named similar to a "group" autotext entry.
Such as "user" entry is ".ea", group autotext is "ea". What happens is the
user wants her ".ea" entry, and she gets "ea" from the group autotext. Is
there anyway to define the order of reading the autotext entries, if MSWORD
would read from "normal.dot" before reading "autotext.dot" it would appear
that this would not be happening?? Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated!!

Diane

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Group,
Details:
I have divided autotext entries into two templates, normal.dot includes user
autotext entries, each user autotext entry begins with a ".", such as .va,
.jl, .ea. The second template called "autotext.dot" includes "group"
autotext entries that will be updated frequently from a script program. The
"autotext.dot" is included as an add-in from the MSWORD startup folder.

Problem:
Now that I have implemented this, all appeared to be good UNTIL, I have
users that have autotext entries named similar to a "group" autotext entry.
Such as "user" entry is ".ea", group autotext is "ea". What happens is the
user wants her ".ea" entry, and she gets "ea" from the group autotext. Is
there anyway to define the order of reading the autotext entries, if MSWORD
would read from "normal.dot" before reading "autotext.dot" it would appear
that this would not be happening?? Any suggestions would be greatly
appreciated!!

I guess your users type the AutoText name followed by F3 to insert it at the
cursor location.

The problem with this is that when you type ".ea" followed by F3 in order to
get the Autotext from the Nomal template, Word scans the string of characters
preceding the cursor; when it gets to the ".", it has laready found a match,
and since there is nothing before the "." to indicate that there could be
another Autotext Entry, Word thinks it has found a match and stops searching.
Also, the fact that Word will not suggest an Autotext if you have only three
characters does not help. If you use 4 characters or more as AutoText names,
you can use the Enter key to insert the suggested AutoText entry.

So, you have two solutions:
1)
Leave the Global AutoText entry names as is, but make the users AutoText
entry names like this:
"u.ea" or "ea."
2)
Make all AutoText entry names at least four characters long:
"g.ea" and "u.ea"

 

[Diane]

Jean,
Thanks for spelling out the clear choices for me. My only problem now is
convincing users that count key strokes they need to go to naming convention
of 4 characters. Solution is simple enough, convincing users may not be so
simple.
You've been very helpful, many thanks!
Diane

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Jean,
Thanks for spelling out the clear choices for me. My only problem now is
convincing users that count key strokes they need to go to naming convention
of 4 characters. Solution is simple enough, convincing users may not be so
simple.

Then, as I wrote, you can tell them to use "ea." instead of ".ea" this way
you re still at three characters...

 

[Diane]

Jean,
One more question, I have a user with many, many, autotext entries. Your
solution will work for me, do you have any quick vba tips to get me started
with renaming autotext entries??
Diane

 

[Diane]

Jean,
Never mind - I think the tools autotextdumper & autotextloader should do the
trick for me.
Diane

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Jean,
One more question, I have a user with many, many, autotext entries. Your
solution will work for me, do you have any quick vba tips to get me started
with renaming autotext entries??

Assuming you want to change ".xy" to "xy." from the Normal.dot template, try
this:


Dim ATList As AutoTextEntries
Dim i As Long
Dim strName As String

Set ATList = NormalTemplate.AutoTextEntries

For i = ATList.Count To 1 Step -1
strName = ATList(i).Name
If Left(strName, 1) = "." Then
ATList(i).Name = Right(strName, Len(strName) - 1) & "."
End If

Next

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

Jean,
Never mind - I think the tools autotextdumper & autotextloader should do the
trick for me.

Too late!
;-)

 

[Diane]

Jean -
Awesome...
Had to try it - perfect!!
Many Thanks!!
Diane