WordTips (Menu Interface)
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.
Author Bio
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...
Subscribe
Helpful Links
WordTips FAQ
Ask a Word Question
Make a Comment
Free Business Forms
Free Calendars
AutoText Entries Don't Stick
Linda reports that when she puts a word into AutoText it works just fine, but only while she's in that document. When she closes and re-opens the document, all her added AutoText words are gone and she has to re-enter them.
There are several possible reasons why this would occur. AutoText entries are saved in templates, not in documents, so the cause must somehow be related to what Word is doing with your templates. It may be that the template associated with this particular document is read-only, and therefore cannot be updated with the AutoText information. (Theoretically, however, you should get an error message when Word tries to save the AutoText info to the read-only template.)
If you are on a network, it may be that the template is not available when you reopen the document. You can check in Word to see what template is associated with the document once you reopen it, and verify that it is the correct template that should be associated with it. If the template in which you previously saved your AutoText is not available the next time you open the document, Word will attach the Normal.dot template by default. In any case, you should check with your network administrator to see if there is something funny going on with your templates as they are stored on the network.
Finally, it could be that the problem is related to a known bug associated with several Adobe products interacting with Office. You can find more info about the bug at this Knowledge Base page:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906899
Basically, the bug is caused by a problem in an add-on installed by several different versions of Adobe Acrobat. It affects Word in that some changes (including AutoText changes) are not saved properly. The Knowledge Base article lists several different ways you can cure the problem. (The best one is to update your Acrobat to a newer version. The update should be free from Adobe.)
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (515) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Related Tips:
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 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
Leave your own comment:
Comments for this tip:
Provided that you've definitely selected the right place to store the Autotext (ie the document or normal.dot depending upon your preference) then you'll need to go into the VB Editor and use the save button for the project.
This is a problem that applies massively to saving Macro code, too. Always use the save button in the VBE for these sort of changes and check the modify date/time on your file (in Windows explorer) before closing to avoid pain.