Building Blocks.dot

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I want to take the autotext entries from a Word 2003 Normal.dot and Copy them to the Building Blocks.dotm of Word 2007. And, can anyone explain to me the roll “normal.dotm” plays in Word 2007 now? Is it the same as Word 2003.
Thanks.

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Quick answer is that Normal.dotm plays much the same role in Word 2007 that Normal.dot does in earlier versions.

One major change relates to what you’ve cited: Autotexts have been replaced by Building Blocks (although there is still some limited ability to use Autotexts), which are stored by default in a separate BuildingBlocks template.

Gary

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Quick answer is that Normal.dotm plays much the same role in Word 2007 that Normal.dot does in earlier versions.

One major change relates to what you’ve cited: Autotexts have been replaced by Building Blocks (although there is still some limited ability to use Autotexts), which are stored by default in a separate BuildingBlocks template.

Gary

Gary: Do you know of a way to copy Autotext entries from Normal.dot into the Building Blocks.dotx?

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Char,

Try this (advice excepted from my book):

“Unless you have made a point of saving your Word 2003 AutoText entries to one or more customized templates, they are stored in your old Normal.dot template from that version. To import them into Word 2007, you’ll need to copy that template into the same folder where your personalized Building Blocks template (Building Blocks.dotx) is located. That way, the AutoText entries will load when you open the Building Blocks Organizer.

First, locate the Word 2003 NORMAL template. (Note that if you installed Word 2007 on the same computer with Word 2003, the installation process changed the name of your original [Word 2003] Normal.dot template to “Normal11.dot.”) Make a copy of the old template and rename the copy “AutoText.dot” or “AutoText.dotx.”

Next, paste the renamed template into the folder containing the user-specific Building Blocks template. (In Windows XP, the location is C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks1033.** In Windows Vista [and presumably also in Windows 7, though I’m not certain], it is C:UsersAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks1033.**)

The next time you open the Building Blocks Organizer, you should see your AutoText entries under an AutoText Gallery. (If you click the Gallery heading to sort the entries alphabetically, all of the AutoText entries will be displayed together.) ”

Good luck! Let us know.

Jan

**1033 assumes you are using the U.S. English language version of Word 2007.

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Yet another way (or is this the same thing that Jan said?):

I found that just placing my 2003 normal.dot in the Word Startup folder on my C drive made all of my old autotext entries visible and available in the 2007 bb thing.

The old normal, now that it is in Word Startup, is being run as a global template (view this in Developer Tab, Document Template), upon open.

Judy

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Judy,

That’s a cool way of doing it! (It’s definitely a different way from the one I suggested.)

I’m curious to test your method on another computer.

Thanks for posting.

Jan

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