I manage multiple Word document templates for my company

When I say templates, I don't mean Word templates, but Word documents that contain code that our system, essentially Mail Merges from system data into finished Word documents. So, my resultant document is referred to as a template and my starting document Ive called a Master document

There are many hundreds of these

To make life easier I wondered if there was a way to automatically copy the complex header of a Master document into 10s of Word Document templates

I've attached a current 'Master' document (Master UK.docx) and one example of the Template I need to produce (585prop01.docx).

It's not hard to Ctrl+C and Ctrl+v across from one document to another but often I have 10s (sometimes 100s) of documents to update if the business wants to change something, ie the logo or the layout. (And this is without talking about the Footers or the Page 2 headers which is different

Im looking to see if theres a way to apply some kind of automation to this as it's extremely labour intensive and time consuming. To make it worse the templates are password protected, although these is a 'connection' between the document name and the password

I do this.
I have one document that holds the header and footer in bookmarks.
My templates have an AutoNew macro that copies those bookmarks into the header and footer area in the document, overwriting any current content.

You could, instead, store your header/footer as AutoText in a Global Template. Then use AutoText fields in your templates/documents. You can use AutoNew / AutoOpen macros to update those fields. That is better, IMO, than using bookmarked text.

However, someone needs to know what to change when changes are needed.

In either of these, you edit the base and it gets updated when the template/documents are used.

Hi Charles, very interesting and helpful, thank you

Some things there that I didn't know and, therefore haven't tried but I'll give them a go

Thanks again

My headers are ludicrous, There is so much code that it 'overflows' the header area and 'disappears' into the body (see image)

Of course once the document gets 'mailmerged' by our system then all that appears in the right jand column (under the logo) is a regular address; but the code needed to capture this is really excessive and what you can't see in the image is a some more rows for capturing the remainder of the address, plus office email address, phone

IS there a way to only see the header in Word display (in the same way you avoid seeing Headers in draft view), so the whole header bceomes visible for editing; in essence moving the horizontal row (named page header) down to reveal the whole thing.

As an indication, this is what the entire header code looks like (Yeah I know I can shift the margin of the right column temporarily so I can see the whole thing, but then I have overlapping text from the left text box and DRAFT 'watermark' and it all becomes very messy) please see below. When it is crammed in to the necessary narrow area below the logo it's a 'mare:


<%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeAddress1Event ")%><%if(!applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObjec t(pageContext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeAddres s2Event").equals("")){%>
<%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeAddress2Event ")%><%}%><%if(!applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEform Object(pageContext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeA ddress3Event").equals("")){%>, <%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeAddress3Event ")%><%}%> <%if(!applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pa geContext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeAddress4Ev ent").equals("")){%><%=applyEventToBusinessEntity( getEformObject(pageContext),"McLarens.DocumentTags .OfficeAddress4Event")%>
<%}%><%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject( pageContext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeCityEven t")%>, <%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficePostCodeEvent ")%>
Tel: <%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficePhoneEvent")% >
<%=applyEventToBusinessEntity(getEformObject(pageC ontext),"McLarens.DocumentTags.OfficeEmailEvent")% >

2 July 2022
Our Ref: <%=setLevel()%><%=getValue("CaseNumber")%>

Attached Images

Header 1.jpg (128.0 KB, 23 views)

Those AutoNew/AutoOpen macros, could you share the code, please

Thanks again

First, Insert > Header > Edit Header
See:

• Setting Up Letter Templates - Ribbon by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP and
• my pages How can I get a different header/footer on the second page? and
• Letterhead Textboxes and Styles Tutorial

I will scrounge some macros. Again, I want to stress where possible using templates rather than documents. Reusing documents is a recipe for problems. About the only documents I reuse are logs where I keep date stamping and adding information.


Here is my page on AutoCorrect, Auto Text and Building Blocks.
Automated Boilerplate Using Microsoft Word

I am going to focus on the AutoText method since, IMO, it is the most elegant. Refer to the chapter on boilerplate. You want to have unique names for your entries that will not normally come up in typing. I often use underscores at the beginning of a name and put them in a category that will be at the end of the alphabet so that I do not see these entries in the list. You can and probably should use one of the custom galleries rather than AutoText.
Building Blocks & AutoText by Greg Maxey
I will be assuming Custom Gallery 5, although it does not matter for the update macros.

An AutoNew macro or the corresponding Document_New procedure go in the template.

Run a macro automatically when a document is created, opened or closed
Assuming that the Document_New procedure is in the ThisDocument module of your template...
This macro will update all AutoText fields in a new document created from the template and then remove the field leaving the results. If documents are going to someone else, you do not want these fields in the document, you want what they produce. This could be restricted to headers or footers but I know of no reason to do so.

Thank you so much for your time and help

You are welcome.


P.S. Be careful with the term "Master Document." That is Word's jargon for a "feature" that does not work very well.

Master Documents "Feature" in Microsoft Word