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This Microsoft Word Help & Tips Page offers several solutions to the question, "How do I enter data in
one place in a document and have it automatically repeated in other places?"
My intention is not to reinvent the wheel, so after a brief introduction
I will simply send you on to existing web articles
containing full explanations of some of the more comprehensive methods.
See paragraph 7 if you want to go directly to information about the
exciting new Content Controls in Word2007. |
| 1. UserForm. .
A UserForm is a provides a graphical UserInterface with a document template with prompts
for all pertinent information required to complete a Word form. An
introduction to UserForms and an index to UserForm Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQS) can be found in the article "How to Create a UserForm"
at:
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ (then click the User Form tab), also see my:
Validate UserForm Text Entry. |
| 2. On Line Form. If you find a UserForm daunting, or
if you want to
avoid VBA and macros, then you might try a Word Online (Protected) Form. Online forms are Word documents that have "fill
in the blanks." They are like a pre-printed form with
"fields" on the screen instead of blank lines on paper. The beauty
of On Line forms is that you can fill in one field and Word will fill in or
populate "most1" other designated "like" fields automatically. Here is a quick sample to
whet your curiosity. a. Open a new blank document.
Click View>Toolbars>Forms. The forms toolbar opens.
b. Type - Customer Name and then insert a text form
field.
c. Double click the text form field to display the
options dialog. Note the bookmark name (Text1) and check
"calculate on exit."
Tip: Text1 is the
default name for the first text form field inserted in the document.
You can change this name to practically whatever you want to better suit your application.
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d. Now enter one or more REF fields in your
document where you want to repeat the customer name. REF fields
fill the role of the "like" fields I mentioned earlier.
Tip - You can easily enter REF fields by just typing and selecting the
text "REF Text1" and then pressing CTRL+F9.
e. After
you have entered one or more REF Text1 fields, press the Protect Form icon on
the Forms tool bar. Type a name in the form field and press TAB.
Word will populate the REF Text1 fields with the name you entered in
your form field. |
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| f. Word Online Forms are a
powerful tool. A detailed and very informative series of articles
by Dian Chapman on using Online Forms can be accessed from links on the
following Word MVP FAQ page:
I'm
designing a form that needs to have "fill-in-the-blanks" lines. What is
the best way to create them? g. Some additional
notes and complications.
(1)
In the introduction to this section I stated that Word will fill in or
populate "most" other designated "like" fields automatically. REF
fields that are located outside the main text range of the document
(e.g., headers, footers, text boxes, etc.) will not automatically update
on exit from the field. However, there are some well
suited work arounds. You can use a STYLEREF field as described in
MVP Suzanne Barhhill's presentation on
STYLEREF fields, or you can run a macro on exit from the field that
will update all of the fields, including REF Fields, anywhere in a docuement. For more on
macros for working with the field collection in Word, see:
Field Macros. (2)
For reasons to complicated to go into here, REF and other field codes
will not be updated using "calculate on exit" if the REF field is
located after a TOC field in the document. There are a few work arounds. Provided that you don't need the TOC to update after
protecting the document you can simply lock the TOC field
(select it and press CTRL+F11) before protecting the document. When you need to
update the TOC you can unprotect the form and unlock the TOC with CTRL+SHIFT+F11.
If it is essential that the TOC itself be updated based on formfield
text changes then you can use the following method shown to me by
regular newgroup contributor "Macropod."  |
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| * Here a SET field located
after the last REF field in the document is used to hold the TOC field
and effectively hide it from view at this location. A reference to
MyTOC is used where the TOC should appear. When field codes
are toggled the display looks like this. |
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| 3. Bookmark.
A third quick and simple method is to select and bookmark the text you
want repeated and use REF fields as described above.
a. Insert>Bookmark
opens the Bookmark dialog box. Here we adding a bookmark named
"cName."
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| b. Create the REF fields as
described above, right click, and select update field.
Tip - Use of the field name
REF is optional in cross references to bookmark names (i.e., you can use
{ REF cName } or simply {cName} as I have done in this example).
Tip - If you change the bookmark value, simply press CTRL+a to select
all fields and press F9 to update.
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| 4. OLE Link.
Simply copy the text you want repeated and paste it in the repeated
location use Edit>Paste Special. Paste as Formatted or Unformatted
text and select the radio button "Paste link." This automatically
creates a bookmark at the source location and creates a Link field and
the destination locations. |
| 5. DocProperty.
Nearly all of the methods described above apply a cross reference to bookmarked
text. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Even the
most basic User Form requires rudimentary VBA macros, the Online Form is
protected with accompanying limitations, and the simple bookmarked text
can be accidentally deleted. A DocProperty is simple to use
and much less prone to be accidentally altered or deleted. There are two
types of DocProperties, built-in and custom.
To view and apply DocProperties, click File>Properties. The
Summary tab lists built in DocProperty names, the Custom tab list a
dozen or so pre-named properties. Both tabs provide the user
interface for storing document information as properties.
Now on to
the exercise. |
| a. Open the Properties
dialog (File>Properties).
1) Click the Summary tab.
2) Type in some
information in the property fields.
3) Click OK
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| b. Open the Properties
dialog. 1) Click the Custom
tab.
2) Type in a unique custom
name (e.g., badge number).
3) Apply a type (text is
default)
4) Type in a value
5) Click Add, then OK |
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| b. Now create your fields.
We are going to use the three built in fields in my example (Title,
Subject, Author) and the custom property (Badge Number) with {
DocProperty } fields to populate a form.
Tip - Use of the field name
"DocProperty" is optional with built in DocProperties. |
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| c. Built in and custom
DocProperty fields can be used once or multiple times in each document
to populate form entries and repeat text. When all of your fields
are entered simply right click and press update fields. |
| 6. User Prompts.
Many people ask "How can I set up my document or template so that I am
prompted to enter information when I open the document or create a new
document." The best answer to this question is to send you back to
the the User Form. It is the Cadillac interface
between the human user and the Word form. Still there are
alternatives. Each with its advantages and disadvantages.
All are best employed using a template vice individual documents. |
| a.
FILLIN Field. A FILLIN field fires a prompt when a new document is
created based on a template containing the FILLIN field, when a document
containing a FILLIN field is opened, and (very unfortunately) when you
print a document containing a FILLIN field if the "Update Fields" option
is checked in File>Print>Options>Printing Options. That is it.
There is no bookmark associated with the FILLIN field.
Tip - You can of course
nest the Fillin field in a Set field to create a bookmark and use REF fields as described in the bookmark
method above or ASK method below (e.g., { SET Name{Fillin "What is your
name?"}{REF Name}). |
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| b. ASK and REF.
An ASK field fires a prompt when the field is specifically instructed to
update. Like the FILLIN field, this unfortunately occurs when you
print. Unlike a FILLIN fields, ASK fields do not automatically
fire the prompt when a new document is created or when an existing
document is opened. In addition to firing a prompt, the ASK field sets a
bookmark. The bookmark value can then be employed with REF fields
to populate multiple fields with repeating data. In this example
the ASK field sets the bookmark value "Name." The bookmark is used
with REF fields to populate the form. Like most Word fields, the
ASK field can be updated (and therefore fire the prompt) by selecting
the field and pressing F9. You can update all fields in a document
by pressing CTRL+a and then F9.
Tip - A simple line of VBA code in an AUTONEW and AUTOOPEN macro stored in the template
can be used to make ASK fields autofire: ActiveDocument.Fields.Update |
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| 7. Word2007 & Content
Controls. This is relatively new
territory for me and I am not certain that I will ever completely grasp
XML mapping and all the benefits that it holds. It is
beyond the scope of this page to try a complete explanation of content
controls or the "under the hood" technical aspects of how these new
controls are bound to XML data stored in the new OfficeOpenXML file
format. What I can do is offer what I have managed to discover
through experimentation. a. A very simple method of
repeating data in a Word2007 document without knowledge of any XML or
VBA is to use the built-in Document Property content controls. These are
a collection of pre-defined content controls on the
Quick Part>Document Property menu. The "titles" can be changed to whatever you like.
For example, let's create a repeating content control for a client name.
Use the Insert ribbon to select Quick Parts then Document Properties
then pick one of the predefined content controls. I used
"Comments." |
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| - This inserts a
content control titled "Comments" at the IP just after the text "Client
Name: " which I had previously typed in the document. |
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| - Selecting the
content control and using the Devoper tab>controls group>properties,
open the content control properties dialog and assign "Client Name" to
the control title property. The click OK. |
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| - Click in the
pre-defined placeholder text and change it to suit your needs. |
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| - Select and copy the
content control then paste it to the other location you want Client_Name to appear. |
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| - Changing any of the
content control contents will automatically repeat over all the
controls. |
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| - You can use the
content control properties dialog box to prevent direct editing in one
or more of the individual controls. |
| - Remember this
method employs the content control designed for the built-in document
property "Comments." While we have renamed it "Client Name," it
still manages the document property "Comments." If you use a {
DocProperty "Comments" } field in the document it will display the value
set in the content control. If you change the value of the content
control the value of the document propertry is automatically updated.
However, any DocProperty field will not display the changed value until
the field is updated. b. While the
method above is well suited for simple forms it will fall short if there
are more independent data fields in your form than the 15 pre-defined
content controls or if your need one of those to serve its specific
intended purpose. This next method employs VBA and an Event
procedure. Copy the following code to the "This Document" class of
your form's VBA project: |
Private Sub
Document_ContentControlOnExit(ByVal currentCC As ContentControl,
Cancel As Boolean)
Dim oDoc As Word.Document
Dim rngStory As Word.Range
Dim oCCs As Word.ContentControls
Dim oCC As Word.ContentControl
Set oDoc = ActiveDocument
For Each rngStory In oDoc.StoryRanges
Do
Set oCCs = rngStory.ContentControls
For Each oCC In oCCs
If oCC.Title
= currentCC.Title Then
oCC.LockContents = False
oCC.Range.Text = currentCC.Range.Text
End If
Next oCC
Set rngStory =
rngStory.NextStoryRange
Loop Until rngStory Is Nothing
Next rngStory
Set oDoc = Nothing
Set oCCs = Nothing
Set oCC = Nothing
End Sub
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| - Insert and assign a
title to a content control. Copy the control and paste it where
the data will be repeated. The procedure above runs on exit from
each content controls. All like named controls will update to
value entered in the current control. NOTE
- Based on what I have learned since first publishing this page, the
method above is the least favorable. I have experienced some buggy
behaviour with Document_ContentOnExit event and the method requires VBA
in the activedocument and all the security baggage that contains.
I have left it here just for illustrative purposes. |
| c. The real
power of content controls lies in their ability to be bound (or mapped),
just like the document properties described above are mapped,
to an XML data store contained in the new OfficeOpenXML file format.
Through this binding, any changes in the datastore data is automatically
repeated in all content controls mapped to that data and changes to a
content control automatically updates the datastore and all other
content controls mapped to that datastore data. As I mentioned at
the start of this section XML is not my strong suit. However, here
is a basic example of using content controls and mapping to XML data: |
| - Open a new document
and insert a couple of labels and content controls. Let's call one Client_Name and the other Client_ID as shown below: |
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| - Add the following code to the
template VBA project. When the code is executed (execute it!), it
creates the XML datastore in the document and maps the two content
controls to that data. oCC(1) represents our "Client_Name"
control. It is mapped to element1 of the datastore. oCC(2),
Client_ID, is mapped to element2 of the data store. |
Sub AddCustomXMLPartAndMapCCs()
Dim oCustPart As CustomXMLPart
Dim oCCs As ContentControls
Set oCustPart = ActiveDocument.CustomXMLParts.Add
Set oCCs = ActiveDocument.ContentControls
oCustPart.LoadXML ("<docparts><element1>Click and enter
Client_Name</element1>" & _
"<element2>Click and
enter Client_ID</element2></docparts>")
oCCs(1).XMLMapping.SetMapping _
"/docparts/element1", ,
oCustPart
oCCs(2).XMLMapping.SetMapping _
"/docparts/element2", ,
oCustPart
Set oCCs = Nothing
End Sub |
| The source XML for the procedure above is
embedded in the VBA procedure itself. It is the data starting with
("<docparts> and ending with </docparts"). There is nothing
magic about it. I just made it up. It coud have just as
easily started with ("<bologna_sandwich> and ended with
</bologna_sandwich>").
The intial XML can also be loaded from an external XML file.
For example, here is the text of an external XML file saved on my
harddrive as "C:\mySillySample.xml" |
<bologna_sandwich>
<pickle1>Click to enter Client Name</pickle1>
<pickle2>Click to enter Client ID</pickle2>
</bologna_sandwich> |
| We could map our two content controls using
this external XML file as follows: |
Sub AddCustomXMLFromExtSourceAndMapCCs()
Dim oCustPart As CustomXMLPart
Dim oCCs As ContentControls
Set oCustPart = ActiveDocument.CustomXMLParts.Add
Set oCCs = ActiveDocument.ContentControls
oCustPart.Load ("C:\mysample.xml")
oCCs(1).XMLMapping.SetMapping "/bologna_sandwich/pickle1",
, oCustPart
oCCs(2).XMLMapping.SetMapping "/bologna_sandwich/pickle2",
, oCustPart
End Sub |
| Running either code establishes and XML
datastore in the document file. There is really no further need
for the VBA or the external XML file. |
| With the content controls mapped you can now
copy and paste either content control to other points in the document.
Changes made in any content control will update the data store and all
like named content controls. Update: I
have learned a little more about XML and I have put together a convient
ADDIn that lets you easily create and map content controls. See:
Create and Map Content Controls
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| 8. In
addition to the methods above, VBA can be used to automatically set
document properties, variables, and bookmarks
in a new or existing document and update corresponding fields. You
can download a template here that contains a sample AutoOpen and AutoNew macros
to set properties, variables, and fields for automating a Word form.
Template |
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Looking for something else?
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