How create a doc that uses paragraph from several other documents

[Mark Barron]

I regularly type up building specifications/quotations which use standard
paragraphs or groups of paragraphs. I have 20 or 30 short documents that I
use, currently I open these docs up then cut & paste the text I need for each
element. (EG bricks woodwork etc).

Is there a way of creating a master template that could give a series of
drop down menus that listed the available texts?

thanks

Mark

 

[Lene Fredborg]

You could do this:

1. Create a Word template (.dot).

2. In that template, create an AutoText for each of your current documents.
Each AutoText must contain the content from one of your current documents.
Name the AutoTexts so that it is easy to identify them by their names. You
could use a specific prefix for each category (e.g. br- for bricks, wo- for
woodwork). For help on AutoTexts, see:
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/AutoText.htm

3. Save the template in your Word Startup folder. You can find the location
of the "Startup" folder via Tools > Options > File Locations tab.
Double-click "Startup" if needed to see the full path. Templates found in
Word's Starup folder will automatically be loaded as global add-ins when you
start Word. Thereby, all your AutoTexts will be available to all your
documents. For further details, see "What do Templates and Add-ins store" at:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/WhatTemplatesStore.htm

If you wish, you could create a toolbar in the new template, add menus
("Bricks", "Woodwork", etc.) to the toolbar and add each AutoText to the
relevant menu. All this can be carried out via Tools > Customize. See "How to
assign a Word command or macro to a toolbar or menu" at:
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/AsgnCmdOrMacroToToolbar.htm

However, you will be able to insert the AutoTexts without the toolbar (e.g
via Insert > AutoText). A fast method is this: type the first characters of
the AutoText name , then press F3.

If you wish, you can send an e-mail to the e-mail address you can "extract"
from my profile and I think I will be able to help you further.

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word

 

[Graham Mayor]

In addition to Lene's suggestions, you could use the boiler.dot add-in -
http://www.gmayor.com/downloads.htm for the purpose it was originally
intended - inserting boilerplate text. Put all your texts in a separate
folder and pick that folder from the dialog. This will then give you a list
of texts from which you can insert one or more at the cursor. If you prefer
you can modify the code to always use that folder rather than prompt for it
each time.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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