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  #1  
Old 08-21-2021, 01:26 AM
mike_302 mike_302 is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2016
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Default Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge!

I consider myself an intermediate-advanced user of Word. Not quite up to writing macros, and not brilliant with Developer tools, but I'm pretty good with Styles, Hidden Formatting symbols, cross referencing, captions, etc...



However!

I've always struggled with Fields, and I really want to change this.

I am currently working on 50 similar reports. Some of the content is formulaic, and just needs a small, well defined tweak in each report. e.g. each report deals with a different location. I have been manually opening each report, and Find-Replacing the Location lines of text. However, with this example, the "location" information also happens to be the Title of the report, so I've figured out how to use the predefined Title field; now I only update the title page.

There are other types of info that aren't as simple as the Title. I want to be able to create a field for any purpose, an then have it repeat throughout the report, wherever I put a link to that field. BONUS: I'd love to then create a form that I can click to open, which asks me to fill in data for all the unique fields.

Putting the BONUS aside for a moment, I've already tried following one guide that used Developer Tools > Plain Text Content Control, and then copy-pasted that content control using Paste Special > Paste Link > Unformatted text... However, for some reason, that ONLY refreshed if I manually selected the links and Updated them, or Selected All and pressed F9. It wouldn't refresh if I hit print (and I did go into the options to make sure this setting was active); and then when I reopened a document, it seemed to struggle updating or loading the links -- generally just crashing... This seemed like a nightmare pathway for achieving my goal...

In closing, I'm hoping someone reading this gets what I'm after, and might either tell me:
(1) I was on the right path with the Developer tools, and just need to persist, because this sounds like an unusual problem
(2) I was on the right path with the Developer tools, but achieving what I want is usually problematic and troublesome, for anyone
(3) The Developer tools path was the wrong way about it entirely.

And if someone could comment on the BONUS goal, that'd be brilliant.

I have Kutools for Word (if any users have that and know it's possible to achieve my goals with it);
and I have Word 2016 and later (personal and work licenses).
Happy simply to be pointed to the best learning resources to achieve these goals.
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  #2  
Old 08-21-2021, 04:56 AM
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gmayor gmayor is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2019
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It sounds like you need a few content controls. If you use https://www.gmayor.com/insert_content_control_addin.htm to insert a rich text control and check the Map Control option, you can then copy that control and paste everywhere you need it to repeat. Whatever you type in one of them will be repeated automatically in the copies.
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Old 08-21-2021, 05:59 AM
mike_302 mike_302 is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmayor View Post
It sounds like you need a few content controls. If you use https://www.gmayor.com/insert_content_control_addin.htm to insert a rich text control and check the Map Control option, you can then copy that control and paste everywhere you need it to repeat. Whatever you type in one of them will be repeated automatically in the copies.
OH! I'll have to check this out. Your photo documentation add-in was quite handy, so I'm optimistic about this!
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Old 09-14-2021, 04:00 AM
mike_302 mike_302 is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2016
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Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge!
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gmayor View Post
It sounds like you need a few content controls. If you use https://www.gmayor.com/insert_content_control_addin.htm to insert a rich text control and check the Map Control option, you can then copy that control and paste everywhere you need it to repeat. Whatever you type in one of them will be repeated automatically in the copies.
So I finally got into this. I added 2 Plain text content controls, mapped, and copy-pasted once.

I saved the file. Tried to reopen; it gets part way into loading the doc. I get the dialogue saying, "this document contains links that may refer to other files..." Whether I click Yes or No, the app blinks a few times, then just permanently seems to be loading.

I opened in Safe Mode, and it says "Errors were detected in this file, but Word was able to open the file making the repairs listed below..." It cites OLE Fields 1, and Styles 1.

If I get rid of the copy-pasted box, and restart not in safe mode, it will load.

I played around a bit further: I think it has to do with renaming the file after creating the content control. If I don't rename the file, it will still throw the first dialogue ("this document contains links...") but nothing else.

Any advice? Does this have to do with some implementation through your template?
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Old 09-14-2021, 09:01 AM
Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2019
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Word's sample templates often use the specially set up Document Property Content Controls. You can do the same thing. These are built-in Mapped Content Controls that you can repurpose.
Repeating Data Using Document Property Content Controls and Other Mapped Content Controls


Greg Maxey has a number of pages on using Content Controls, especially Mapped Content Controls. He discusses the built-in ones in his pages Enhanced Document Properties AddIn and Repeating Data (Populating Multiple Like Fields) by Greg Maxey.

Addressing your question in the title: Content Controls are not fields, although they can be used inside fields. Paul Edstein has posted several excellent tutorials on fields that are pinned to the top of this forum as well as the Mail Merge Forum. Graham Mayor has a number of articles about fields on his site. I especially like his Add-In http://www.gmayor.com/export_field.htm.
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  #6  
Old 09-14-2021, 09:09 AM
Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon is offline Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Windows 10 Mastering Fields -- A Real Challenge! Office 2019
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mike_302 View Post
So I finally got into this. I added 2 Plain text content controls, mapped, and copy-pasted once.

I saved the file. Tried to reopen; it gets part way into loading the doc. I get the dialogue saying, "this document contains links that may refer to other files..." Whether I click Yes or No, the app blinks a few times, then just permanently seems to be loading.

I opened in Safe Mode, and it says "Errors were detected in this file, but Word was able to open the file making the repairs listed below..." It cites OLE Fields 1, and Styles 1.

If I get rid of the copy-pasted box, and restart not in safe mode, it will load.

I played around a bit further: I think it has to do with renaming the file after creating the content control. If I don't rename the file, it will still throw the first dialogue ("this document contains links...") but nothing else.

Any advice? Does this have to do with some implementation through your template?

Could you attach a sample document with the problem?
How to attach a screenshot or file in this forum.
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