Insert AutoText Tool Unavailable on Header and Footer Toolbar

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 11, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Sherman has run into a problem when creating headers or footers. He often use the "Insert AutoText" tool on the Header and Footer toolbar, but for some strange reason the "Insert AutoText" tool has become greyed out so that he can no longer select it.

Believe it or not, this behavior is normal in versions of Word that use the Header and Footer toolbar. It seems that the availability of the tool is dependent upon the availability of AutoText entries that use the style assigned to your header or footer.

One of the first things you should do is to check the style of the paragraph used for your header or footer. If they use styles other than the default Header or Footer styles, then you may want to reapply the Header or Footer styles, as appropriate. This may be all that is necessary to make the "Insert AutoText" tool again available.

If this does not work, or if you don't want to use the Header or Footer styles, then remember that you can always use Insert | AutoText | AutoText to insert any AutoText entries in a way that is not dependent on styles in the header or footer.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3355) 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...

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