Adding an AutoText Entry

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 8, 2025)

To get the most out of AutoText you will want to customize it to help with words and phrases that you use most. You can add AutoText entries in this manner:

Select the text and/or graphics that you want to add to AutoText. You will need to select the paragraph marker as well if you want to store paragraph formatting with the text.
Select the AutoText option from the Insert menu, and then choose the AutoText option from the resulting submenu. Word displays the AutoText tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The AutoText tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

Replace the suggested name with the desired name for your new entry.
Click on the Add button.

After working with AutoText for a while, you many need to change some of your entries. Fortunately, Word makes it real easy to change your AutoText entries. Follow the steps outlined for adding entries, and when you click on Add, you will be asked if you want to redefine the AutoText entry. Click on Yes and you will be able to use the new entry.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1104) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using Crop Marks with a PostScript Printer

Want to add crop marks to a printout? It's easy to do, provided you are using a PostScript printer.

Discover More

Converting Strings to Numbers

When creating macros, you often need to convert a text string that contains numbers into actual numeric values. You do ...

Discover More

Ordering Search and Replace

The wildcard searching available in Word is very powerful. Here's how you can use ordering in your search efforts to make ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Organizing AutoText Entries

Want to get more organized with your AutoText entries? Here's how you can take advantage of the organizational features ...

Discover More

Defining Protected Sections as AutoText

AutoText is a very useful tool. But what if the text you want to use when creating an AutoText entry is protected and you ...

Discover More

Creating Custom AutoText Categories

Want to categorize your AutoText entries? You can easily do so using the techniques described in this tip.

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is four more than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.