Websites or your knowledge on tricks to get jobs done quicker on W

[Phil1982]

Hi

Apologies if this is a vague question.

Does anyone know any websites that give non-obvious tricks on how to get
tasks done quicker in Word?

e.g. I have to type the phrase "Senior Customer Relations Manager" at the
end of each letter.......not that i am senior or a manager!
I tried using Autotext but that didn't work.....it says I need to do
something to Normal.dot template which our computers at work prevent us from
doing.
Then a colleague tells me the trick........he does it using Autocorrect
instead and if he just types scrm it changes to "Senior Customer Relations
Manager".

Another trick I tried that isn't ideal
There are 20 sentences that I have to select from for each letter. There
are frequently occuring patterns of which senteces go together......so I
created 6 template letters with the sentences already there....but always
watching out for where minor alterations are required.........I'm sure there
is something more efficient
*I used VBA to create a form that lets me select sentences and only have to
have 1 template letter......only to find the computers don't allow macros to
run :|

A trick I tried that failed
I have to enter todays date 3 times on the same letter each time I create a
letter. So I insterted Date fields.
That fails because if I access the document on another day it changes the
date......and it would be another time-wasting task to have to keep deleting
the fields and replacing with original date. I also tried instering document
created date fields as a way round this....but that fails because it gives
the date the template document was created instead the date it was first
copied and saved for that individual letter.

There are many other repetitive tasks I have to do that I'm sure there are
non-obvious tricks around. So if anyone could share the ones they use or
point me to websites that would be appreciated.

Thanks

Phil

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

For the three instances you cite:

AutoCorrect (see http://word.mvps.org/faqs/customization/AutoCorrect.htm)

An AutoTextList field (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/AutoTextList.htm)

A CreateDate field (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFldsFms/DateFields.htm), but for repeated data
generally, see http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Repeating_Data.htm.

You'll find many other useful articles at these Web sites and others listed
at http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/links.htm

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

It's good that you're finding work-arounds. But, someone needs to shake some
sense into your IT people. Normal.dot is designed with individual
customization in mind. Preventing users from changing it defeats one of
Word's major strengths. That's like letting employees drive the company car,
but not allowing anyone to adjust the mirrors or the driver's seat.

Multiple users should NOT NOT NOT be using the same normal.dot file. For
formatting consistency, common templates should be stored in the Workgroup
templates folder. But, the user's own normal.dot, stored in the User
templates folder, and should be modifiable by users.