Using Word 2007 in Outlook editor

[JGreg7]

I have office 2007 professional installed, but for some reason, the Outlook
e-mail editor does not use Word. I am unable to use any of the Autotext or
AutoCorrect functions (Quickparts is greyed out).

Am I missing a setting somewhere? What is the point in putting the full
toolbar into the Outlook e-mail editor then graying out most of the features?

I must be missing something, this just does not sound correct.

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

I have office 2007 professional installed, but for some reason, the Outlook
e-mail editor does not use Word.

That's the only editor Outlook 2007 uses. If you don't have the full Office
suite installed, Outlook has a stub of Word for its editor, but if you have
Word form the Office suite installed, Outlook 2007 does use Word. In either
case, it's the underlying Word engine. You don't have a choice.

I am unable to use any of the Autotext or AutoCorrect functions (Quickparts
is greyed out).

Did you install Outlook and Word from the same Office suite?

 

[JGreg7]

Our IT group installed it at one time (single installation), so I would
assume so.

Is there a way to restore the menu ribbon from being grayed out?

 

[Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]]

Our IT group installed it at one time (single installation), so I would
assume so.

Use your Add/Remove Programs Control Panel entry to see. If you see separate
entries for Office and for Outlook, then they were not installed fromthe same
suite and you may have problems with the integration between Outlook and Word.

Is there a way to restore the menu ribbon from being grayed out?

The menu ribbon? I don't understand what you mean by that.

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Our IT group installed it at one time (single installation), so I would
assume so.

Is there a way to restore the menu ribbon from being grayed out?

This to me sounds like a deactivated product.

Try to launch Word and tell us if it is fully activated.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

I checked, there is only the MS Office 2007 suite - no separate entry for
Outlook.

What I am really trying to acheive is the functionality I had in Office
2003. I have many custom dictionary entries, autocorrect and autotext items
that I have moved over to Word 2007, and they work normally there. I would
also like to use these same entries in Outlook.

When I open a new e-mail in Outlook, the "Quick Parts" is empty, and the
menu items are grayed out. I can add entries and they show up saved in the
NormalMail.dotm template. Outlook should be able to pull these items from
the Word template like it does in Office 2003.

I do not want to have to duplicate every custom dictionary, autocorrect and
autotext entry in Word and Outlook.

How can I fix this?

 

[JGreg7]

I am not sure how to tell if it is activated. Office 2003 you could look on
the help menu - about, but that feature does not seem to be in Office 2007.

The office programs however seem to work normally except for the quick parts
issues in outlook. No reminder messages.

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

I checked, there is only the MS Office 2007 suite - no separate entry for
Outlook.

What I am really trying to acheive is the functionality I had in Office
2003. I have many custom dictionary entries, autocorrect and autotext items
that I have moved over to Word 2007, and they work normally there. I would
also like to use these same entries in Outlook.

When I open a new e-mail in Outlook, the "Quick Parts" is empty, and the
menu items are grayed out. I can add entries and they show up saved in the
NormalMail.dotm template. Outlook should be able to pull these items from
the Word template like it does in Office 2003.

I do not want to have to duplicate every custom dictionary, autocorrect and
autotext entry in Word and Outlook.

How can I fix this?

You may have already done this but...

Tools -> Options -> Mail Format
Tools -> Options -> Spelling (a shortcut to the proofing tab of Mail Format)

It lets you add your custom dictionaries and autocorrect stuff back into
Outlook. Not sure if they are shared with Word, but you'd only have to
do this once.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

I am not sure how to tell if it is activated. Office 2003 you could look on
the help menu - about, but that feature does not seem to be in Office 2007.

The office programs however seem to work normally except for the quick parts
issues in outlook. No reminder messages.

I am trying to reproduce your issue, so bear with me for splitting the
thread.

When I go to create new mail in Outlook, my ribbon is grayed out until I
click inside the text entry pane.

My quick parts feature seems to be working fine. I created a part and
saved it. I then fully exited Outlook and made sure the process exited.

Here is what I am observing.

I click create new mail
I click on Insert portion of the ribbon
I get a new window with grayed out ribbon in the insert section, except
for signature, business card, attach item, and attach file.

If I click into To: it stays gray
If I click into Subject: it stays gray
Once I start editing the text it activates the whole ribbon and the
feature works properly.
I was able to insert a quick part I previously defined

Please confirm whether you can replicate the same behavior.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

That helped, I found the Autocorrect entries and was able to change the
dictionary to the same one as Word.

Any ideas how to get the auto text entries to show up? I could not find any
option for this on the options menu, or sub menus.

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

That helped, I found the Autocorrect entries and was able to change the
dictionary to the same one as Word.

Any ideas how to get the auto text entries to show up? I could not find any
option for this on the options menu, or sub menus.

That feature appears to have been discontinued in Outlook 2007

Looks like you'll have to settle for Quick Parts and you have to use
Word to edit Quick Parts as part of the template or simply use it modify
and resave under the same name, but you already know that.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/messagetemplates.htm has more
information.

You are welcome to suggest it to be put back in for Outlook 2010
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

My Outlook works the same way up to the quick parts entry on the new mail.
When I click on the body of the new mail, the ribbon becomes active. When I
access the quckparts button, there is only the "Save selection to quick part
gallery" option available. I created a text string and saved it, so now it
shows up along with the "Save.." item.

While this is encouraging, what I would like to see is my autotext entries
from Word show up.

When I access the QuickParts button in Word, I get the following sub-menu
items:
- Document Property
- Field..
- Building blocks organizer
- Get more on Office online
- Save selection to quick part gallery

How do I get the full QuickParts menu in Outlook?

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

My Outlook works the same way up to the quick parts entry on the new mail.
When I click on the body of the new mail, the ribbon becomes active. When I
access the quckparts button, there is only the "Save selection to quick part
gallery" option available. I created a text string and saved it, so now it
shows up along with the "Save.." item.

While this is encouraging, what I would like to see is my autotext entries
from Word show up.

When I access the QuickParts button in Word, I get the following sub-menu
items:
- Document Property
- Field..
- Building blocks organizer
- Get more on Office online
- Save selection to quick part gallery

How do I get the full QuickParts menu in Outlook?

Well, you don't.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb226712.aspx - explains why it
would be tough to replicate on your own.

Here is a usable workaround.

If you are referring to the fact that Building Blocks organizer is
missing, I think you are right.

Click on Quick Parts
Right-click on any entry
Choose Building Blocks organizer

Now for dessert...

Bringing back AutoText
Right-click anywhere on the ribbon and choose "Customize quick access
toolbar"
Choose "Commands not in the ribbon"
You'll see all the missing features. Add them as you see fit.

You are missing:

AutoText
Building Blocks Organizer
Document Property (not available in Outlook)
Insert a field (not available in Outlook)
Quick Parts
Get more on Office Online (not available in Outlook)
Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery

So just add them.

The unavailable features might still be possible to enable, but that
would take more research.

As for the rest, I think you'll agree the product is functioning as
designed.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

Are you saying that I have to reassign each autotext entry into the
NormalMail.dotm template? Do I understand this correctly?

I have hundreds of the autotext entries, not to mention that as I create
them in Word, I would like them to automatically be available in Outlook.

Am I correct in understanding that this is not possible with Office 2007? I
find it difficult to believe that Microsoft would remove such a valuable
feature. (Of course I would not have believed they would arbitrarily
rearrange the menus for apparently not rational reason).

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Are you saying that I have to reassign each autotext entry into the
NormalMail.dotm template? Do I understand this correctly?

I have hundreds of the autotext entries, not to mention that as I create
them in Word, I would like them to automatically be available in Outlook.

Am I correct in understanding that this is not possible with Office 2007? I
find it difficult to believe that Microsoft would remove such a valuable
feature. (Of course I would not have believed they would arbitrarily
rearrange the menus for apparently not rational reason).

To my knowledge, this is it.

One sync option is to create entries in Word as normal.dotm, and then
copy the file as normalmail.dotm

Whereas in previous versions Microsoft triggered a fully functional
instance of Word, this has been changed in Outlook 2007.

You will probably get other opinions so stay tuned to your thread.

There might be a commercial product that addresses your need, but I am
not aware of any at the moment.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

I followed your suggestions and I now have access to the auto text and
organizer, however there are only the two sample entries I added.

How do I link these to the autotext entries loacted in Word?

 

[JGreg7]

Thank you for your help with this.

I have already tried to use the Word template (copying it and renaming it to
NormalMail.docm), however Outlook did not seem to recognize it.

Office 2007 seems to be constantly disappointing me with discontinued
features, difficult to use menus, and other annoying bugs. I think I will go
back to Office 2003. This was the last straw.

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

Thank you for your help with this.

I have already tried to use the Word template (copying it and renaming it to
NormalMail.docm), however Outlook did not seem to recognize it.

Office 2007 seems to be constantly disappointing me with discontinued
features, difficult to use menus, and other annoying bugs. I think I will go
back to Office 2003. This was the last straw.

Well, then you'd want to load both normal.dotm and normalmail.dotm in
Word 2007 and use the organizer feature of building blocks to copy
between the files.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179177.aspx

It does sound annoying. On the other hand, in 15 years of doing this I
have yet to meet anyone else who uses the products' Auto Text feature to
such a great extend as you do.

Microsoft has a nifty feature for you
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx where it
shows you how to find the missing functionality of your old menus.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you

 

[JGreg7]

I followed the procedure to migrate the autotext entries, and it does work.
The process however is exteemly cumbersome. You have to individually open
each entry, and save it to the other template. I have hundreds of entries.

I was expecting something like the old Styles Organizer in Word 2003 where
you could just select a group and copy them all at once.

What is really curious, even after Microsoft has gone to the trouble of
creating an independent place to put the autotext entries, why would they not
make it available to Outlook as well? This makes no sense to me.

It seems that an improvement of this type could have been easily applied to
all of the office programs from a single library - now that would have been
an improvement!

Any way, thank you for your help. It seems I have a long night ahead of me
copying the individual autotext entries one at a time.....

 

[Leonid S. Knyshov // SBS Expert]

I followed the procedure to migrate the autotext entries, and it does work.
The process however is exteemly cumbersome. You have to individually open
each entry, and save it to the other template. I have hundreds of entries.

I was expecting something like the old Styles Organizer in Word 2003 where
you could just select a group and copy them all at once.

What is really curious, even after Microsoft has gone to the trouble of
creating an independent place to put the autotext entries, why would they not
make it available to Outlook as well? This makes no sense to me.

It seems that an improvement of this type could have been easily applied to
all of the office programs from a single library - now that would have been
an improvement!

Any way, thank you for your help. It seems I have a long night ahead of me
copying the individual autotext entries one at a time.....

Hi Greg,

Sorry about the pain.

I am sure this can be done with a macro. You may want to post a project
on odesk.com to have someone code it for you.
--
Leonid S. Knyshov
Crashproof Solutions
510-282-1008
Twitter: @wiseleo
http://crashproofsolutions.com
Microsoft Small Business Specialist
Please vote "helpful" if I helped you