Inserting custom graphics into Word document

[lhall33950]

My firm does not use preprinted letterhead. We want to be able to produce our
letterhead electronically each time we prepare a letter. We have a banner
that runs across the top of the sheet (our logo), a column of names that runs
down the left side of the sheet and 3 lines of centered type at the bottom of
the sheet (address/phone/fax info). We want to be able to open up a blank
page in Word and click on a toolbar button that instructs a macro to insert
the 3 blocks of "graphics" into the sheet and then be able to type the
contents of the letter in the remaining space. We are open to any method to
accomplish this (within reason). I need to get in touch with someone who is
extremely knowledgeable in Word to discuss this in more detail. Please help!
We have MS Office Standard Edition 2003.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Create a template.
Put your banner in the Header.
Insert a text box in the Header, put all the names in it, and position it
down the left hand side.
Finally, put your address etc. in the Footer

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

No macro is needed; you just need a letterhead template. See
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm, especially the "More
complex letterhead" section.

 

[lhall33950]

Thank you so much for the quick response. Can you tell me if we set this up
in a template format will the "graphics" be protected? We have a list of
names that runs down the left side of the page and don't want it to be
accessible to anyone who could make changes to the text.
I also read the reply sent byTony Jollans and, interestingly enough, his
solution is what we are currently doing...however, every time a letter
extends on to a second page the text box with the names jumps over into the
middle of page 1 which causes massive frustration for our non-Word saavy
secretaries. (And, with this scenario the text column is not protected in any
way so it is also editable by other parties.)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you're really anchoring your text box to the First Page Header (as Tony
advised), it will neither jump to the next page nor be repeated on the next
page. See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/AnchorToHeader.htm. Putting
stuff in the header/footer will prevent inadvertent changes; it will not
prevent deliberate tampering. If that is an issue that cannot be addressed
by user education (and really, if you tell employees not to do something and
they do it anyway, then that is a Human Resources issue), then see
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/ProtectWord2000PlusHeader.htm

 

[lhall33950]

Thanks, Suzanne, however Tony's response to my inquiry did not say anything
about anchoring the text box to the First Page Header. I have very limited
experience with Word but I printed out your recommended link about headers
which includes info about anchoring so hopefully I'll understand it well
enough to make it work. As far as the security of the content...it is not
only our employees we are concerned about but also when we email documents as
attachments outside our company. The link you provided about preventing users
from editing the header of a document looks like exactly when we need to
do...however, novice that I am, it is greek to me. Can you tell me where do I
find the "This Document module" of the template I'm going to create into
which I should copy/paste the language? And, if there are any additional
instructions that would need to accomplish this please include those. It
sounds too easy to just copy/paste...Thanks.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Well, your question didn't say anything about only wanting the letterhead
(or part of it) on the first page only

As Suzanne said, if you are anchoring the text box in the header it should
not jump about so there must be something else causing that.

There is nothing you can really do about people outside your company who, if
they receive documents containing macros, will probably disable them as a
matter of routine. Do you need to send out Word Documents? PDF would be a
better format for distribution.

 

[lhall33950]

OK, now I'm confused...what macro? I don't believe any of these threads from
either you or Suzanne said anything about building a macro in order to
resolve our issue. Forgetting the security part of the question...will I have
to build a macro in order to set up the template as Suzanne recommends? I
tho't she said it wasn't necessary.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks, Suzanne, however Tony's response to my inquiry did not say
anything

about anchoring the text box to the First Page Header.

I beg to differ: Tony wrote, "Insert a text box in the Header." That means
*in* the header, not just in the header area.

For emailing, you'd be much better advised to use PDFs.

Wrt macros, see http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm or
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/CreateAMacro.htm

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The referenced article
(http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/ProtectWord2000PlusHeader.htm)
provides a macro ("code") to protect the header.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Forgetting the security part of the question...will I have

to build a macro in order to set up the template as Suzanne recommends?

No.

 

[lhall33950]

Thank you Suzanne and Tony...I believe you now have provided me with the
tools I will need to ATTEMPT to build the template for our letterhead. It all
sounds great in theory but only until I really get into it will I know for
sure if I have additional questions. Hopefully not. This website is a
godsend. I can't tell you how valuable a tool this is.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Glad we could help (I hope!).

 

[lhall33950]

Hello...I'm back. The information Suzanne provided me (along with the
educational links to instructions) provided me with what I needed to
successfully create the template which Suzanne had suggested would solve our
letterhead dilemma. I did it. I built the template for our letterhead (using
an anchor, cool). But, now I have discovered that was not the answer to our
problem.
We use a document management software that controls our client information.
Documents are linked to the client in their own "file". The software (Client
Profiles) assigns a document number to each document we produce so the
document is generated inside the software program. We want to be able to open
a blank document within the Client Profiles software and then somehow insert
our letterhead onto the blank document. There is no way within Client
Profiles to simply open a word template and have it saved within Client
Profiles. Client Profiles has instructions for building "custom templates"
but you'd have to be a NASA engineer to understand them and their intended
use is much more technical than our simple needs. Before you suggest just
having the letterhead in a form that generates every time we open a letter
document (which is what Client Profiles is currently doing)...we want to be
able to make frequent changes to our letterhead so we want to be able to
store our documents on plain white "paper" and each time we need to use that
form just insert whatever the current up to date letterhead is. We don't want
to have 100's of letters stored with out dated versions of the letterhead
already in them. I'm getting weary of having to go into 100's of stored forms
and manually changing the letterhead in them. Hopefully, this has clearly
explained our situation. Sorry I wrote a book but now you see why...
ANY HELPFUL THOUGHTS?

 

[Tony Jollans]

Personally I think what you are attempting is bad practice, but it's not my
business.

It's difficult without knowing anything about Client Profiles (their website
doesn't provide much in the way of specifics) but it seems you're asking for
some special processing to take place when you open a document from it (to
incorporate the text into a current letterhead) and, presumably, when you
close one as well (to remove the letterhead from the document to be saved).
Normally one would have such code either in the document template or a
global template (normal.dot is a special global template); where you put it
depends on what Client Profiles allows.

Whatever your code is, assuming it's possible, it must essentially take the
letterhead you have just designed or some equivalent and then merge it with
the document text. It might be difficult to cope with every possible
scenario but if you can rely on your documents being simple then maybe yor
code can be simple too. From what you say, it rather sounds to me like
Client Profiles is giving you the capacity you need and, given that it is
your chosen solution, you probably should be using its facilities instead of
trying to subvert them.

If you can go with the simple route then the easiest thing to do is to
record yourself adding the letterhead to a document and taking it out of a
document, to end up with two macros - one to use on checkout and one on
checkin.