Content Controls inserted with from Developer tab and copied using copy-paste method not updating

Question

Hello,

I am trying to include in my Word document some Plain Text Content Controls that will auto-fill in different locations of the document once I modify the text in only one of them. The problem is that the content of the different controls does not update. I do not know if some settings in my document are making so that the controls are not mapped with each other, but I cannot recall doing something out of ordinary.

My steps are:

I insert a first Plain Text Content Control from the Developer Tab.

I change the Properties of the Control (title, tag..) - (but I also tried skipping this passage in my tests)

Then I insert some text in my Content Control.

Then, I copy and paste my Content Control elsewhere in the document. When exploring the Paste options, I make sure that the "keep content control" options is selected. The Control is pasted in the new position, with the same text I entered in the first instance of it.

Then I go back to the first instance of my Content Control, change its text, but this does not update in the pasted Control.

Note that if I try to add a Content Control using the Insert Tab - Quick Parts, and I choose a random Document Property as Content Control (I can later modify its properties from the Developer tab as I would do with the Plain Text Content Control), and I copy-paste it in different locations of the document, then all controls update correctly when I change the text in the first one.

To recap:

Copy-pasted instances of a Content Control manually inserted from the Developer Tab do not update.
Copy-pasted instances of a Content Control inserted from the Quick-Part button, do update.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

See my page Repeating Data Using Document Property Content Controls and Other Mapped Content Controls for information on how you can do this.

If you insert controls directly from the Developer Tab, they will not have the ability to repeat unless you "map" them to an XML part. The built-in Document Property Content Controls under quick parts are already mapped and can be renamed and repurposed. Otherwise there are free utilities available (mentioned in the page) to make it easy to map your own custom controls. This is necessary for control types other than plain text and the single date-picker control in the built-in ones, i.e. a checkbox or drop-down control.

Here is a video on how to do this yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtFhIqK0gec

Here is a support article from Microsoft.

Walkthrough: Bind content controls to custom XML parts - Visual Studio (Windows) | Microsoft Learn

Answer 2

The document property content controls are already mapped to a common data node, which allows data sharing among copies. The plain-vanilla controls are not. Here is an article about repeating data methods, please see section 7 for the details about how to map your content controls: Repeating Data (or populating multiple like fields)