Pulling information from other areas in the document

[Claudine]

Hello,

I'm creating a template for my group. The beginning has
a list of objectives for the student. At the end, we
list the objectives again. I would like to elminate
double entry and have the list of objectives pulled from
the beginning of the document.

Thanks in advance,

Claudine

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I'm creating a template for my group. The beginning has
a list of objectives for the student. At the end, we
list the objectives again. I would like to elminate
double entry and have the list of objectives pulled from
the beginning of the document.

Select the material you want to re-use, and use Insert|Bookmark to
create a bookmark. Let's call the bookmark "objectives". Then insert a
REF field at the point where you want the duplicated material, using the
bookmark name you created. There are varios ways to insert a REF field.
I would usually just use ctrl-F9 to insert the special field braces {},
then type <space>REF<space>objectives<space> within the {} to give you

{ REF objectives }

Then select the field, press F9 to execute it, and press Alt-F9 to
display the result.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Claudine]

This doesn't work that great because the bookmark is
easily deleted. I'm making this a template for users to
insert info. As they change/edit/add to the objectives
in the beginning, they will surely delete the bookmark.
I gave it a specific style but then it only pulled in the
first one.

Claudine

 

[Peter Jamieson]

This doesn't work that great because the bookmark is
easily deleted. I'm making this a template for users to
insert info. As they change/edit/add to the objectives
in the beginning, they will surely delete the bookmark.
I gave it a specific style but then it only pulled in the
first one.

I don't think there is another particularly good solution that is simple
and does not rely on much user training/understanding. A few things you
could consider:
a. put the objectives into a form field in a section on its own,
protect that section for form filling, and use a REF field in the
unprotected portion of the document to duplicate the text. The main
limitations are that working in a form field is different from working
with normal text - in particular, the user can't use normal formatting
features in the form field.
b. stick with the ordinary bookmark approach but ensire that the users
have Tools|Options|View|Bookmarks checked. At least then they can see
whether they are typing inside or outside thebookmark. (As far as I
know, they do have to delete the /entire/ bookmarked text to remove the
bookmark altogether).
c. put the text in a separate file and INCLUDETEXT it. The original
text can be updated using ctrl-shift-F7. But still easy to get it wrong,
and the file contents would not be reset when the user created a new
document. Nice though if what you really want is for the user to edit
their /previous/ objectives, potentially nasty if you want to be able to
reprint old versions of the document with oder versions of the
objectives. You could probably achieve something similar using AUTOTEXTs.

Peter Jamieson