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See SEQuence Field.

They are also a key part of Captions in Word.

[Charles Kenyon]

If an Add-In is not responsible, a repair will usually fix this. Try the Quick repair first (5-10 min). If that does not do it, try the longer online repair (time depends mostly on connection speed). Don’t do either if you have time-sensitive work to get out because you won’t be able to use any Office application while it is running.

Repair an Office application – Office Support

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Charles Kenyon.

For me, the Styles Pane settings still stick in Word 2019.

I created an Add-In for the Navigation pane settings that sets and uses a document variable with the following AutoExec macro.

Sub AutoExec() ' runs when Word Starts
    If ThisDocument.Variables("SetNavPaneWidth").Value = True Then
        Dim iWidth As Integer
        iWidth = ThisDocument.Variables("NavPaneWidth").Value    ' change to suit using dialog
        Application.CommandBars("Navigation").Width = iWidth
'        Application.CommandBars("Styles").Width = iWidth ' This line is commented out on distribution
    End If
    Application.CommandBars("Navigation").Visible = ThisDocument.Variables("NavState").Value
End Sub

The Add-In can be downloaded from my downloads page.

AutoFormat could also be used to convert hyperlink text to active links.

While those were news to me, and interesting in a “oh, look at that” kind of way, I’m really not liking the interface they provide.

Word for Wordperfect users

I’m OK with your prefering Wordperfect. I preferred it myself when I went to work in an office dedicated to using Word and I knew WP very well. I contributed one article to Wordperfect for Lawyers back then. I don’t know that either program is better, but they are different.

This is why I use WordPerfect when I want to get real work done. I always have the Reveal Codes screen active and it helps me make even simple documents look like I want them to.

Word’s Reveal Formatting Tools

You are using a list style for these paragraphs. After you modify the tab setting in one paragraph, click in a non-bold part of the paragraph, click on the style and tell Word to update. That will change the formatting in everything you’ve formatted using that style.

Since you’ve formatted a number of empty paragraphs using that style, you’ll have to go through and delete those numbers.

If you are going to be using Word much, I recommend reviewing all of Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word. It will save you grief.

You don’t need a macro. Replace will do it with Wild Cards. I expect someone will give you what you need to put in. I do not know.

Thank you for the update. I suspect that you are working on a level that is beyond my ability to make further useful suggestions.

Hi Andrew/Charles,

I am using MS Word 2016 and intend to use the built in CCs for simplicity and reliability. I did have a question on the (behind the scenes) linking between Document Property CCs.
For example, I insert an “Abstract” CC on a cover page and make it so you can edit the field, but not delete the box. Next I copy and paste that same box to a header on another page and modify the properties there, such that I can not edit or delete that copied box. Is this reliable, such that any change in the text on the cover page “Abstract CC” now globally updates all the headers with the pasted version (the pasted version being different in that you cannot delete or edit that box)? It sounds like the characteristics may have changed with new versions of Word (i.e. MS Word 2013 / MS Word 2016) and I just want to confirm that this approach is and will be reliable, before choosing this path. I think I know the answer, just want to confirm.

Thanks once again for your thoughts and suggestions on this topic.

Regards,

James

I don’t know of any differences between 2013 and 2016 with the Document Property Content Controls. As far as I know, these have been stable since Word 2007. Yes, you can insert one, change the title, and copy it elsewhere. Then make the copies such that they cannot be deleted or edited. I agree with Andrew that you would not want to have different settings for allowing carriage returns.

Charles
Are you sure about that? I don’t see that behaviour in Word 2013. This might be a semantics issue though – if I copy a CC to multiple places then the properties on the original get pasted to the multiple places too. But I can then alter the properties on any of those CC instances so that one of them CAN be deleted or edited.

***

I was sure, but mistaken. 🙁

I agree with Andrew.

I found long ago in a networked environment that if anyone on the network had Word open and had loaded a network version of an Add-In that editing that Add-In was a problem. That is one reason I recommend having Add-Ins that are being used being on the local computer rather than the network. The Add-Ins are stored on the network and local copies are updated as a part of the login process.

I think Andrew summed up pretty well.

The CC that Janine provided was a mapped rich text content control. It works fine in that document. You cannot copy a mapped control from one document to another and retain the mapping. Mapping alters the XML of the document.

You can, on the other hand, put a mapped content control in a template and have the mapping carry over into new documents based on that template. I believe that is what you are trying to do and it should work fine.

All of the document property content controls except the publish date are plain text. Publish date is a date picker. These controls are mapped. They are a special case of mapped controls. Greg Maxey’s utility gives you the ability to map any content control without understanding the process and XML.

If you apply the “do not delete” property to any mapped content control, that change applies to all copies of it.

I apologize. It had been some time since I tried this and apparently Word has changed. Although you can’t select text in a protected form, you can select an image.

What is your version of Word? Your operating system?

Try putting your image in the header or footer. Then apply the protection for filling in forms.

The StyleRef field is the simplest and most robust solution. Mapped Content Controls work very well but require an investment in time. It is not possible to save a mapped content control as AutoText so you have to redo things each time you create a new template. I don’t have a problem with too many styles, I just set the special use ones to have a very low priority and perhaps do not have them show up in Quick Styles. They could even be marked as hidden using the Manage Styles dialog.

By the way, the StyleRef field works pretty well when used in the body of a document as well.

The method outlined in the page I linked works well but the document property content controls are the equivalent of plain text controls.

To use rich text controls, you need to actually map the control yourself. Greg Maxey’s Content Control Tools will let you do that without programming knowledge.