Sharing AutoText Entries

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 4, 2019)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

David wondered if there is a way that a small group of workers can share the same set of AutoText entries, without each of them needing to set up their own entries.

AutoText entries are stored in templates. Even if you don't specify a particular template to be the recipient of a new AutoText entry, it is still stored in a template—the Normal.dot template.

If you want to share AutoText entries, the key is to get the entries out of the Normal.dot template and into a different template that you can all share. Suppose, for a moment, that you store the AutoText entries in a template called Group.dot. This template could be stored in a mutually accessible network folder, and then referenced by a shortcut in each user's Startup folder. (That's the Word Startup folder, which is identified by choosing Tools | Options | File Locations and looking at the Startup entry.)

In order to put AutoText entries into the shared Group.dot template, you can either create them from scratch and specify that they be placed there, or you can use the Organizer to transfer the AutoText entries from one template (such as Normal.dot) to another (such as the shared template).

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (345) 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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using Text Boundaries

Text boundaries can help you better visualize where text can appear in your document. The feature is easy to turn on and ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of Choppiness in Justified Text

Justified text doesn't always produce the best-looking results. Here's how to avoid some of the choppiness that can occur.

Discover More

Determining the Day of the Year

Need to find out the day of the year for a particular date? It's easy to do if you are using a macro. All you need to do ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (menu)

System Won't Save AutoText

In some instances, Word may actually refuse to save any of your AutoText entries in the Normal.dot template. There are a ...

Discover More

Store Common Addresses in AutoText Entries

Do you write letters to lots of different people? One good place to keep those addresses is in AutoText entries. They are ...

Discover More

Editing AutoText Entries Directly

Editing AutoText entries, and particularly deleting them, can be cumbersome if you have a lot of changes to make. There ...

Discover More
Subscribe

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.

What is one less than 2?

2019-11-04 14:50:28

Cathy

I have AutoText for a specific report. I have a template for that report. The AutoText is not in the Normal template, only in the report template. In the past, doing a "Save As" with a new file name for a template kept the AutoText. So if I had Report Template 2018-07-02 and saved it as Report Template 2018-09-06, the AutoText was in both files. Now when I save the template with a new name, all the AutoText disappears.

I've seen recommendations, such as yours above, to use the Organizer. But it no longer has an AutoText tab. How can we copy AutoText to a new template? There are many, many entries I need to move forward into each new iteration. Re-copying all the entries each time I edit and update the template is not an option. This has been wreaking havoc with use for over a year and seemed to be triggered with a newer version of Word. Thanks for your help.


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.

Videos
Subscribe

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

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.