Hi there,



This has been stumping for the last few days. I'm created a form for one of the attorneys at work. She has a will template that has a lot of repetitive languague. (For example, the word "sons" is used 33 times. Ideally, we would like to keep the langauge of the will, but have her be able to change "sons" to children/daughter/friends/husband/etc. without having to retype the same word 33 times. My boss suggested a drop down, but again, she would be dropping down 33 times. We'd be making her job harder than the current find/replace that she's using. I've been doing some research on using bookmarks to create REF fields both right in the document itself and in quick parts, but although I've been following the steps exactly, I haven't had any luck.

Here's what I tried:
Another application for Word fields is in entering repetitive data into a document. Some legal documents and many forms require, for example, a person's name to be entered a number of times. You can do this by hand or you can have field codes do the work for you.


-Start by describing the data that will be repeated. For each piece of data, such as a person's name, you will need a bookmark name for that code. So, if you want to add a person's name and their date of birth multiple times, you'll use one bookmark name for their name and one for their date of birth.

-To do this, click at the top of the document and choose Insert > Quick Parts Field and from the Categories list choose Mail Merge and from the Field names list choose ASK. In the Prompt box type "What is the customer's name?".

-In the Bookmark name box type custname, enable the 'Default response to prompt' checkbox and, in the box, type "Type the name here" and click OK. You'll see a small dialog appear displaying the question you just typed, do not complete it, just click Ok for now.

-Repeat and add another ASK field for each piece of information. Each field must be given a different bookmark name.
Next you will add the markers where the text will go. To do this, first click in the position in the document where the first item will go and choose Insert > Quick Parts Field and from the Categories list choose Links and References and from the Field names list choose REF and click the Field Codes button.

-Next to the word REF, type the bookmark name that matches the one in the ASK field for that piece of information. From the Format list choose Title Case (or the case to use if you want to format the entry), and click OK.

-You will see that a prompt "Type the name here" appears in the document. Add Ref fields everywhere in the document that the data from the ASK fields should be inserted into the document. Save the document before continuing.

-To test the result, open the document and press Control + A to select the entire document. Press F9 to update all fields in the document. When you do this, you will see a dialog appear asking the name of the customer &mdsah; type it and click OK.

-Other dialogs will appear for every other piece of data to be inserted into the document. When you're done the document will be updated and the data inserted into position.
As you can see, Word fields are very flexible and can assist in document automation tasks.

When I test, nothing happens. At all.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

Those are good instructions; it should work, so just trying to think of something that might be problematic.

You aren't putting spaces in the bookmark names are you?
In the part where you insert a Ref field, don't bother with the Field Codes button, instead, make sure you can see the name of your bookmark in the list, and just select it.

Also, you don't have Tracked Changes turned on, do you?

I think there are spaces after the bookmark. But I think it defaults that way. The REF comes up automaticly, and when I select the name of the field, it automaticly puts a space in, for example, "REF custom".

I don't think I have tracked changes on. How would I check?

I read something that said bookmarks have different parts, and that it might be something like REF bookmark name actual text? Does all that go somewhere?

Thanks for your help.

If you're able to select the bookmark from the list, then it seems bookmarks are being made successfully. (When I said no spaces, I meant no spaces inside the name... CustName, not Cust Name.)

Go to the Review tab and make the Track Changes button doesn't appear to be turned on.

That is what you are making by using the tools to insert fields. To see the fields that you are inserting, hold down ALT and press F9. (ALT+F9 again to turn the display of field codes back off.)

They should look something like this:
{ ASK custname "what is the name" \* MERGEFORMAT}
{ REF custname}

YOu can insert the fields manually...Hold down Ctrl and press F9. This will make the brackets. Then type the text in the brackets. You can see the syntax in the example above.
You cannot type the brackets. They must be created using Ctrl+F9

The track changes is off. I'm able to insert the fields. They look fine, but when I test it: the prompt doesn't pop up, and when I go to type the word "sons," it doesn't automaticly fill in the rest of the fields, I have to type them individually. I've attached a sample, can you take a look?

Attached Files

TRUSTN012.doc (56.5 KB, 14 views)

I see 3 ASK fields, and two of them are practically identical and store the entry in the same bookmark (Beneficiary).
The other asks "Who" and stores that entry in a bookmark named Family.

I suspect you are typing "son" to the first prompt. Your answer is stored in the bookmark Beneficiary. Then when you answer the second prompt, that answer is also told to be stored in Beneficiary, overwriting the first entry.

You have lots of working REF Beneficiary fields. They do what they are supposed to do... display whatever is stored at the bookmark named Beneficiary. And, of course what is stored there is whatever you answered to the second prompt.

You can ALT+F9 and edit the first ASK field, changing it's bookmark (like maybe to Relationship), then edit some of the REF fields, replacing Beneficiary with Relationship.

I'm so confused. I know that I have to rename some fields, but I can't get the asking prompt to come up. How can I get it to do that when the document opens? (Am I supposed to store the answer to the question somewhere?)

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for your help.

I don't know how to tell you to proceed, because I don't know what prompts you are trying to make.

No. When you type an answer to a prompt, Word stores that answer in the bookmark that you told it to use when you made the field, so the REF can use it other places in the document. You should not have multiple ASK fields using the same bookmark.

Attached Images

Capture.GIF (4.3 KB, 20 views)

Thanks for your assistance. I think maybe I'm unclear on the process of it all. I guess what I thought would happen when the document is finished and error free, it would go like this:

1. User opens the doc.
2. An ask prompt pops up, for example, who is the beneficiary/relationship?
3. The user types in an answer, "sons." That answer sons, daughters, wives, etc will change based on the user and our client, but the document stays the same. And the question prompt when you first open up the document is the same question every time.
4. "sons autopopulates in every field.

I don't know if what I did in the REF boomarks reflects what I want to happen. Does it?

You need 1 ASK field that asks What is the Relationship and has a bookmark named Beneficiaries.

Then place a REF field at each spot where you want that text (sons, for example) to appear. The REF fields will all be identical.

Currently you have three ASK fields, and your REF fields are not identical to each other.

ASK fields are not fired by simply opening the document and I have to ask if you are sure that is what you want? Are you sure you don't want this document to be a template, and the ASk field should fire when you create a new doc, not when you open an old one?

I'm glad you asked. I would like the document to be a template. Will that affect these directions at all?