Using Building Blocks gallery

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We have used AutoText fields for years in previous versions of Word. Now that we are using Word 2010 we wanted to start using the controls for our AutoText items. We know that the AutoText are now stored as Building Blocks. In one of our templates we have used the building blocks gallery content control to have a dropdown of the AutoText associated with an area of the template. There are 8 possible entries that can be selected. All seemed to be working well until we needed to change the text in the AutoText entries.

We did our usual insert of the AutoText from the content control, made the changes, selected the paragraphs, saved the AutoText entry with the same name as the inserted item, backed out the paragraph so that the content control was visible again, saved the file and closed it. When we try the template (or reopen the template) the contect control gives us the choice of the original paragraphs without the changes. If we go to the Building Blocks to insert the same paragraph, we get the changed paragraphs as expected.

What are we doing wrong? The Building Block is supposed to be saved in the template, but doesn’t come into the document from the content control. What are we missing?

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Not sure. Here are some tools that might help.
Building Blocks and AutoText
CC/V/BM & DP Tools Add-In (Ver. 4.0)

Are you sure your document is attached to the template with your building block?

Also, look into the AutoTextList field.

http://www.addbalance.com/usersguide/autotextautocorrect.htm

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Thanks for the references. In previous versions of Word we did use the AutoTextList field. If we cannot get the Building Block Galley Control to work as expected, we will try the AutoTextList again.

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You can have the same named building block in two places in the same template if the gallery or category is different. Are you sure you have examined every building block in the attached template?

You may also have put the entry into the Building Blocks template rather than the attached template. The Building Blocks template is a built-in template which is stored locally on your machine.

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Thanks for looking into my issue.

I just checked Building Blocks from the blank Word document. The paragraphs are not in the Building Blocks or Normal templates. They only are listed in Building Blocks when the template itself is open or a document created from the template.

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Again, for a document to be able to use a building block that building block must be stored in a global template or in the template attached to the document. If somehow your document gets attached to a different template (as in being edited on a computer that does not have the same template in the same location) the document will not find it. Also as Andrew pointed out, you now can have multiple building blocks with the same name in the same template but in different galleries or categories. The article on Building Blocks and AutoText has a tool that lets you examine the galleries and categories for each template. The AutoTextList field continues to work in Word 2010.

Also, personally, I would not attempt to create the text for an AutoText entry while in a Content Control. It may be simply superstition, but, to me, that is adding another level of complexity. I would put the text into a plain text context and save from there.

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Thanks for the suggestion, Charles.

We do have the text that goes into AutoText in a separate document. We updated that glossary document to look like the text we want in AutoText. We copied the text section from the glossary to the template, pasted in the section of the template, reselected the text section from within the template, and created the Autotext entry to override the existing AutoText in the template. We thought this would save if we made the template “dirty,” but that didn’t work.

If we deleted the Building Block Gallery Content Control and recreated it, all was well.

We will document this method of updating the AutoText and BB Gallery Control for our staff.

Thanks for the help

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You are welcome. Glad you found a solution.

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