Using AutoText

Article contributed by Cindy Meister and Jay Freedman

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

How do I use AutoText?

You can quickly insert any entry from the dropdown list on the AutoText toolbar, from the menu Insert>AutoText, 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.

To change the category of an entry, you must recreate the entry, first formatting it with the appropriate style.

Creating an AutoText entry is easy:

1. Select all the text or other material to be included in the entry (pay special attention to the last paragraph mark when selecting -- you may or may not want to include it).
2. If you want the new entry to be available in all your documents, use Insert>AutoText>New or press Alt+F3. If you want it to be available only in documents based on the same template as the current document, use Insert>AutoText>AutoText and change the “Look in” box to the desired template.
3. 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.

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 toolbar, for example, proceed as follows:

1. Tools>Customize>Commands
2. Select AutoText from the list on the left
3. Click and drag the AutoText entry to the toolbar of your choice

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 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).

What’s the difference between AutoText and AutoCorrect?

The obvious difference between AutoText and AutoCorrect is how they are triggered. AutoCorrect takes effect as soon as you type text that Word recognizes, followed by a space or punctuation. In contrast, AutoText requires you to press F3 or accept the AutoComplete prompt; if you don’t specifically enable the replacement, nothing happens. If you want complete control and don’t like things happening “automagically,” you may prefer AutoText.

Another difference is that unformatted (“Plain text”) AutoCorrect entries are available in all Office programs, but AutoText entries and formatted AutoCorrect entries are specific to Word.

Tips

• AutoText names have a maximum length of 32 characters and may include spaces. The number of entries and the length of their contents are limited only by the template file size and available memory.
• To print a list of the AutoText entries, open File>Print and set the dropdown list "Print what" to “AutoText entries”, then click OK.
• If you want a picture, logo, or other item to be printed on every envelope, including envelopes generated by a mail merge, create an AutoText entry and give it the special name EnvelopeExtra1. Detailed instructions are available at Modifying the appearance of your envelopes.
• You can create a field that displays a dropdown list of AutoText entries. Refer to How to add pop-up lists to any Word document, so you can click your way through changes in seconds.
• AutoText entries are a great way to store specially formatted blank tables, as described in Is there a way to add custom table formats to the Table Autoformat list? They’re also useful for complicated fields, groups of symbol characters, chemical formulas, or anything else that’s time-consuming to construct and will be used more than once.
• If you want to create a toolbar button for inserting AutoText or change or restore its keyboard shortcut, you'll find it in the Customize dialog and the Customize Keyboard dialog under the All Commands category with the name "InsertAutoText."
• In VBA, you get access to the AutoTextEntries collection through the a Template object. For sample code that shows how to insert an entry, see Inserting nested fields using VBA.