Expalin Auto Text

What Is AutoText and How Do I Use It?

What is AutoText?

AutoText is a way to store parts of a Word document for re-use. You can, for example, create a library of boilerplate paragraphs for business letters, or keep a handy selection of headers and footers. An AutoText entry can store anything a Word document can contain, such as formatted text, pictures, and fields.

AutoText in Word 2003 and Earlier

Word comes with a number of predefined AutoText entries, and you can add as many as you like.

How do I insert an AutoText entry?

You can quickly insert any entry from the dropdown list on the AutoText toolbar, from the menu Insert>AutoText, from the AutoText button on the Header and Footer toolbar, or from the dialog box Insert>AutoText>AutoText. If you want to see what the entries contain, use the dialog box.

You can also insert an AutoText entry by typing its name in the document, then pressing F3 (on a Macintosh, Command-Option-v). If the AutoComplete feature is activated (by a check box in the AutoText dialog), then you'll see a tool tip above the insertion point when you type enough letters of the entry’s name so that Word can recognize it; pressing Tab or Enter will insert the entry.

In the Insert>AutoText menu lists, you'll notice that the entries are separated into categories. Each category corresponds to the paragraph style with which the text was formatted when it was made into an AutoText entry.

If the insertion point is in a paragraph of Normal style or in a paragraph of a style that has no entries defined, then the menu shows all the categories. However, if the insertion point is in a paragraph of a style for which there are any AutoText entries, the Insert>AutoText menu (or an AutoText button such as the one on the Header and Footer toolbar) shows only the entries in that one category.

How do I create a new AutoText entry?

1.  Type or insert the material you want to include in the new entry. It can be text—from as little as one character to many pages—or a table, a graphic, fields, text boxes, or any combination of these items.

2.  Assign a paragraph style to the material. The name of the style will become the category in the AutoText menu that contains the new entry.

3.  Select all the text or other material to be included in the entry (pay special attention to the paragraph mark at the end of the selection—you may or may not want to include it).

4.  If you want the new entry to be available in all your documents, use Insert>AutoText>New or press Alt+F3.

5.  If you want it to be available only in documents based on the same template as the current document, use the Insert>AutoText>AutoText dialog and change the “Look in” box to the desired template.

6.  Type in a name for the entry. If you want to use the AutoComplete feature, the name has to be at least four characters long. The name can’t be more than 32 characters long.

It's possible to assign AutoText entries to menus, toolbar buttons, and keyboard shortcuts—no macro is required! To assign an AutoText entry to a menu or toolbar,

1.  Click Tools>Customize>Commands.

2.  Select AutoText in the list on the left.

3.  Click and drag the AutoText entry to the menu or toolbar of your choice.

To assign an AutoText entry to a keyboard shortcut,

1.  Click Tools>Customize>Keyboard.

2.  Select AutoText in the list on the left.

3.  Select the name of the entry in the list on the right.

4.  Click in the “Press new shortcut key” text box.

5.  Press the key combination you want.

6.  Click the Assign button.

Where are AutoText entries saved?

AutoText entries are saved in Word templates (*.dot files); they cannot be saved in regular documents (*.doc files). If you don’t specify a different location in the “Look in” box of the dialog when creating an entry, it will be saved in the default global template, Normal.dot.

Because AutoText entries are stored in templates, additions and changes to them aren't automatically saved when you save the document you're working on. To make sure they are saved, hold the Shift key while you click the File menu, and select the Save All command to save both the document and the template. If you forget this step, you should be given a chance to save the template when you close Word—but you shouldn't rely on this.

You can copy AutoText entries between templates with the Organizer (Tools>Templates and Add-Ins>Organizer>AutoText).

AutoText in Word 2007

In Word 2007 the AutoText feature was renamed and is now called Building Blocks. The feature is basically the same as AutoText in previous versions, but in Word 2007 the Building Blocks have additional functionality.