My AutoText side menus do not work. How do I active the side menu

[Blessedbev]

I go to insert, then to AutoText, and I have a list that starts with AutoText
then Attention Line, Closing, Header/Footer, etc. Each one of those items
should have some choices beside it when I hoover over it with the mouse. Mine
do not have any choices. To access my autotext choices I have to go to Tools
menu and then to Auto Correct and get them via that route. I want my AutoText
to work like it was intended but where is the options to get this going? Is
there something I must download. I am using Office 2003 Professional that I
bought at through my work.

 

[Beth Melton]

If you see the AutoText submenus then you should have AutoText entries
that display for each category or the submenus wouldn't be present
since they are created by the AutoText entries. IOW, if you didn't
have ATTN or Attention then you wouldn't see "Attention Line".

First check another menu that has a similar setup. What happens if you
go to Tools/Language? Does the Language menu display?

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Blessedbev]

Hey Beth,
Attention Line is there with the Attention Line, closing, Header/footer,
etc. each with the arrow beside it. When I click on it to see my options I
see a little blue square peak out from behind the menu. I tried Language and
that worked fine but it only went out once whereas AutoText when clicked on
goes over to the first column of options and then each one of them has an
arrow with another set of options and I think that this is the only thing
that goes over twice?

 

[Beth Melton]

That's true, the AutoText menu is the only one that is at least three
menu levels deep. I was trying to ascertain if you were encountering a
display issue or if it's a problem with AutoText. See if the same
issue occurs if you start Windows in Safe Mode. If not then that
indicates the problem lies in your graphics driver and you should
obtain an updated driver from the manufacturer's web site.

BUT, since you indicated you do see some time of menu then see if
renaming your Normal.dot resolves the problem since that's where the
built-in AutoText entries are stored. Locate Normal.dot and rename it
to OldNormal.dot. Word will create a new one upon starting.

If this resolves the problem, any customizations can be copied to the
new Normal.dot via the Organizer (Tools/Templates and Add-Ins) Once
this is complete OldNormal.dot can be discarded. If the problem still
exists then you can delete the new Normal.dot and rename your
OldNormal.dot to Normal.dot.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Blessedbev]

OK Beth, I have never been in this menu before. When I went to
Templates/Add-Ins I see Normal in the box under Document Template. Am I to
change this to OldNormal and then click the Attach button? Then the second
half of the menu has an empty box and then the words Automatically update
document and under that is Global Templates and addins with a box that has
Add in it. At the very bottom of the menu box is Full Path with Organize
boxed in (left side) and on the right bottom is OK and Cancel.

What boxes am I to touch?

 

[Beth Melton]

Not exactly.

First you need to exit Word and locate Normal.dot and rename it to
OldNormal.dot. Start Word and see if your AutoText entries are back
since Word will create a new Normal.dot for you.

Then, if you customized your old Normal.dot, such as modifying the
styles, added AutoText, macros, etc then using the Organizer command,
found in the Templates and Add-ins dialog box at the bottom, you can
transfer your customizations. If you've never added any customizations
then you can skip this step.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/BlankDocNotBlank.htm for
instructions on renaming Normal.dot. You must do that before attempting to
retrieve anything using the Organizer.

 

[Blessedbev]

I renamed Normal.dot as you suggested to OldNormal.dot and when I went to
Word all the AutoText side menus were working Now, do I have to go back and
change the name back to Normal.dot? and what happens if I don't?

Thanks so much.

 

[Charles Kenyon]

No! Now you have to decide if you had anything in the old template that you
miss. If so, you would try to copy or recreate it in thenew template.
--
Charles Kenyon

Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word

Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide




--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies
and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn
from my ignorance and your wisdom.

 

[Beth Melton]

When you renamed your old Normal.dot OldNormal.dot, Word created a new
Normal.dot for you. If you rename OldNormal.dot back then you'll
encounter the same issue with your AutoText as before.

Unless you created your own AutoText entries then either leave
everything 'as is' (nothing will happen) or you can delete the
OldNormal.dot since wasn't working properly anyway.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Bev Greene]

I have a few things that I will add to my AutoText to get it where I want it.
Then I will just let it be and hope that I do not have any more trouble.

I am taking a class in Microsoft Word and the instructor does not like Times
New Roman and told us to change our font to Century Storybook so I changed my
default. When you said that the problem could have been caused by changing a
default setting, I do think that changing my font default could have caused
the problem. Thanks so much for all your help.

 

[Beth Melton]

Changing your default font shouldn't have caused the problem. I don't
believe I said changing a default would have created the problem.

One 'default' was in reference to, any customizations you made prior
to renaming your old Normal.dot. Those would be lost upon creating a
new Normal.dot. So you'll need to set your default font again. The
other 'default' was in reference to the built-in AutoText entries,
such as Attention, ATTN, etc. those are automatically included and are
the default AutoText entries.

In any event, other than perhaps changing your default font again, it
sounds like you're back in business.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/