How to use autocomplete in Word 2007

Do you get tired of typing the same string of characters over and over in a Word document?  For instance, since I work for the South Central Library System I may have to type that several times in a document or several documents. Autocomplete is turned off by default in Office 2007. Here are the steps I have used to get around that.

 In Word highlight the string of text you wish to have autocomplete. Press Alt F3, that will bring up the "Create New Building Block" dialog box.

Fill out the information in the Create New Building Block dialog box:

Name: This is filled out automatically with the text you highlighted.

Gallery: Select the gallery that you want the building block to show up in.

Category: Select a category, or create a new category.

Description: Type a description of the building block.

Save in: Click the name of the template in the drop-down list. A template must be open to be displayed in the drop-down list of template names. I use the default "Building Blocks.dotx".

Options: Choose one of the following:

    Select Insert content only. This is selected by default and is the one I use.

    Select Insert content in its own page.

    Select Insert content in its own paragraph.   

 That's how you create an Autocomplete template. To use it start typing your string of characters, usually you only need the first two to four to start and hit the F3 key and the rest will autocomplete. This will work only if there are no other entries that begin with the same four letters, so be aware of that.



Comments

[Eduardo]

Thank you so much! It helped me a lot!!

[Redraven]

Helpful tip. What do you do if you have a superscript in your copied string of text? I'm trying to make an autocomplete for x109/L (9 being the superscript) but it comes out as a normal text.

I have tried the other autocomplete workaround: going into "Word Options" -> Proofing -> Autocorrect Options to no avail. The superscript still shows up as text

Thanks

[Rhonda]

You can get a subscript/superscript or other formatting preserved with AutoCorrect using this method: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/word-use-the-power-of-autocorrect-to-save-heaps-of-time/

[devendra kuamr dr]

its helped me thank you.