Optional paragraphs - automation

Question

Our clients have a number of different scenarios in their agreements and letters. The paragraph options depend on who the agreement is with... .etc.

I know I can use Autotext, but I'm wondering if there is another solution using Fields or Developer? Any tips please.

I have also read about an add-in by the famous Greg Maxey to do these small automations. Would these add-ins be useful to me in preparing these kinds of documents?

Ta

Leanne

Answer 1

Thanks John. I will take a look.

Currently I can't even get Autotext to do this because it's more than 255 characters. There never used to be a limit. Frustrating that they have ruined this very useful feature.

Cheers

Leanne

AutoText is the kind of building block that also works on Macs. And I agree that it can hold far more than 255 characters. I have AutoText entries that have many pages of text. They are checklists for interviewing potential clients with different charges and also include tables and Content Controls.

It also works with the Building Blocks Gallery Content Control.

Answer 2

Currently I can't even get Autotext to do this because it's more than 255 characters. There never used to be a limit. Frustrating that they have ruined this very useful feature.

AutoText can certainly hold more than 255 characters. As an example, I have the complete Gettysburg Address stored in an AutoText entry, and it's 1454 characters. Maybe the confusion comes from this remark at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/word.autotextentry.value regarding the assignment of an AutoText entry in a macro:

Setting the Value property only returns the first 255 characters of the object's value.

Answer 3

Look into the Building Blocks Gallery Content Control.

Here is one of Greg Maxey's pages that may assist: Build & Deploy Custom Building Block Galleries by Greg Maxey

As Greg points out, you can add such a custom gallery to the QAT in your template.

For something more complex, a UserForm (custom dialog box) can be helpful.

• Create a Simple Userform by Graham Mayor, MVP
• Create & Employ a Userform by Greg Maxey

I am not surprised that MS has not attempted to build this into the User Interface more than they have. It is not as simple a thing to do as it is to ask for.

Answer 4

Greg has a huge amount of information on his site, but it's not easily discoverable. Here's a Google search tip: type your search terms followed by
site:https://gregmaxey.com/ 

There's no space between the word site: and the URL. Then Google will only search that site for your terms.

Answer 5

Posting some typical variations in wording might help us give better advice.

One approach is to include all variant phrases in the text. Each phrase is bookmarked and the bookmarked text is marked as hidden. Then you run a macro to show only the phrases that are relevant in a particular context.