Drop down Menu and Content Repetition

[legal86]

I work for a law firm and as part of my job, I draft a lot of trusts. Their average length is around 150-200 pages and they obviously differ a little bit from client to client. We’ve already got templates for the different types of trusts (joint, single, etc.) in place with content controls for the client’s name, address, trustees, etc etc. on the first couple pages, so that helps reduce repetitive typing and drafting time by quite a bit. But one area that is kind of slow involves the copying and pasting of specific paragraphs of text that may be needed depending on what the client wants. So for example, some clients want to allow gifting from their trust to only their spouse, in that case I’d go to my auto-text file, copy the specific paragraph I need, and then paste it in 4 different locations in the trust document. (While I'm drafting I always have two MS Word windows open, one with the clients trust and another with all of my auto-text that never changes.) Other clients might only allow gifting to third parties, so again, I’d go to my auto text file, copy that specific paragraph, and paste it in the appropriate locations.



To speed up the process, what I’d like to do is incorporate a small database of my legal text and use drop down menus in the first page of the template that allow me to select the type of text I need and then have that selection apply it to the multiple areas in the document where it’s supposed to go, this way I don’t have to have another MS Word window open. Is this something that’s possible? I’m assuming I’d have to learn some VBA programming to make this work, right? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

[gmayor]

Start by looking at http://gregmaxey.com/Repeating_Data.htm

What you ask is entirely possible and creating such templates is how some of us make a crust. Personally I would suggest employing a userform to list and make the selections, then insert them at predetermined locations in the template. See http://www.gmayor.com/Userform.htm and http://www.gmayor.com/Userform_ComboBox.html