Do you have control of the content that is being emailed to you? You will need to have a robust method of 'tagging' the content being provided to you so that you can automate the retrieval of those components. If you can get good tagged input docs then you have a chance of automating the data compilation.

Charles' suggestion of tagging those input files with bookmarks is the 'correct' recommendation but in practice I would expect that your input providers will return documents with those bookmarks missing or the bookmarks won't contain the text you need. Because bookmarks are invisible and how they behave when people replace text in and around bookmarks you are going to need to check/repair each one to get good results with an includetext-based solution. In my mind, this is no better than the copy/paste method you already work with.

Instead, I would recommend putting Rich Text Content Controls into your source documents because those can be protected from deletion and CCs are more visible on screen for your content providers so they will find it easier to comply with your input requirements by putting the content INSIDE the marked places.

Using CCs to tag the input info doesn't lend itself to a simple method for compilation but that can then readily be automated with a macro or a workflow method.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia