Creating a Template/Styles Not Sticking

[Nellie Bly]

If you create a template and apply styles..what is the best way of
constructing this?

If you use fields the description of your field shows up in the shaded
boxes. Let's say you create a style to be used with the address within the
letter. If you use styles..how can you tell the user "add address here"
without typing "add address here" and formatting it with an address style.

Thank you.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Nellie,

If you create a template and apply styles..what is the best way of
constructing this?

If you use fields the description of your field shows up in the shaded
boxes. Let's say you create a style to be used with the address within the
letter. If you use styles..how can you tell the user "add address here"
without typing "add address here" and formatting it with an address style.

Which version of Word are we discussing, here?

Have you ever tested Word's Letter Wizard? This does something very much
like you describe:
- a form is displayed
- the user types in all the basic information (except the body of the
letter)
- the document is created, using this information, and formatted with
appropriate styles
- the user can then type the body of the document

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 8 2004)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As Cindy says, the UserForm approach is very simple for users, but it
requires some VBA ability to create a UserForm. If you're not up to that,
you can get Bill Coan's DataPrompter utility
(http://www.wordsite.com/DataPrompter.html), which automates the production
of UserForms.

Another approach (which is used in many of the Microsoft-supplied templates)
is to use MacroButton fields. When you see something like "[Click here and
type address]," that's what you're dealing with. These fields are very easy
to create and take advantage of the fact that clicking anywhere in a field
selects the entire field; provided "Typing replaces selection" is enabled
(as it is by default), typing overwrites the field.

The MacroButton field consists of three parts: the field name, a macro name,
and a prompt, which the field will display. An example of a MacroButton
field is:

{ MACROBUTTON NoMacro [Click here and type address] }

The usual purpose of a MacroButton field is to run a macro when you
double-click on it, but Word won't complain if you provide the name for a
macro that doesn't exist (such as "NoMacro").

To create the field, type text such as that above, varying the prompt text
as desired, select it, and press Ctrl+F9 to turn it into a field (or press
Ctrl+F9 to insert the field delimiters and type between them). Then press F9
to update the field and display just the prompt. Needless to say, you should
insert the field in a paragraph formatted with the style you want the text
to use.