Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Inserting the User's Initials.

Inserting the User's Initials

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 13, 2026)

Word automatically maintains several items of information about you, as a user. One such item is your initials, which are changed on the User Information tab of the Options dialog box. If you want to automatically insert your initials in your documents, you can follow these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want the initials inserted.
Choose Field from the Insert menu. You will see the Field dialog box.
In the Categories list, choose User Information. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Field dialog box.

In the Field Names list choose UserInitials.
Click on OK to close the dialog box and insert your field.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1244) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Inserting the User's Initials.

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...

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