[Bob W]

I have created several autotext entries, with a unique style assigned to
them, and they appear in the autotext menu and function just as expected.

I have also created an AutoTextList of other items and those items were
assigned a different, unique autotextlist style, when I created them.

I thought that the result would be that only those items styled with my
"autotextlist" style would display in the autotextlist popup menu. But
instead, the autotextlist popup menu lists both my autotext entries AND my
autotextlist entries. Am I doing something wrong, or is this a bug?

[Jay Freedman]

Bob W wrote:
I have created several autotext entries, with a unique style assigned
to them, and they appear in the autotext menu and function just as
expected.

I have also created an AutoTextList of other items and those items
were assigned a different, unique autotextlist style, when I created
them.

I thought that the result would be that only those items styled with
my "autotextlist" style would display in the autotextlist popup menu.
But instead, the autotextlist popup menu lists both my autotext
entries AND my autotextlist entries. Am I doing something wrong, or
is this a bug?

Exactly what does the field code of the autotextlist popup say? And what are
the actual names of the styles you assigned to the two groups of entries?

Compare the field code to the syntax shown in the "How it works" section of
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFl...toTextList.htm. Is it correct,
particularly the style name in the \s switch?

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Bob W]

Jay Freedman" wrote:
Exactly what does the field code of the autotextlist popup say?

The field code text that I typed in when I created the autotextlist, was:
{ AutoTextList €œRightClickHere€� \s "AE Name(Header)" \t "RightClickHere" }

Curiously, if I use Alt-F9 to display the field code, the Field Default
Value part of this text is always missing (that's another thing that has
always puzzled me)... Once saved, if you redisplay it, the field code always
gets truncated to:
{ AutoTextList \s "AE Name(Header)" \t "RightClickHere" }


And what are the actual names of the styles you assigned to the two groups of entries?

The actual style names a

AE Name(Header) (the style used when defining 11 autotextlist items)
AE Name+Address (the style used when defining 11 autotext items)

Nevetheless, both the Autotext Menu, and the AutoTextList, display all 22
items.

BTW, I am putting the autotextlist in the document template header....but
even if I copy/paste it into the body of the template, it still displays all
22 items.

[Bob W]

AutoText and AutoTextLists are hopelessly unpredictable. I imported three
autotext items from another template and Word listed them in the "Normal"
branch of the autotext menu category even though the autotext items I
imported were definitely not styled "Normal" in the source template. (I don't
use "Normal" style for anything.) The autotext branching menu categories, I
thought, were derived from the autotext styles in use. Alas, apparently,
nope.

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Bob W wrote:
I have created several autotext entries, with a unique style assigned
to them, and they appear in the autotext menu and function just as
expected.

I have also created an AutoTextList of other items and those items
were assigned a different, unique autotextlist style, when I created
them.

I thought that the result would be that only those items styled with
my "autotextlist" style would display in the autotextlist popup menu.
But instead, the autotextlist popup menu lists both my autotext
entries AND my autotextlist entries. Am I doing something wrong, or
is this a bug?

Exactly what does the field code of the autotextlist popup say? And what are
the actual names of the styles you assigned to the two groups of entries?

Compare the field code to the syntax shown in the "How it works" section of
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/TblsFl...toTextList.htm. Is it correct,
particularly the style name in the \s switch?

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Bob,

I think you're right, it's buggy. I tried reproducing what you described.
While I didn't get exactly the same results, it didn't behave very nicely at
all. I was able to get just the "AE Name+Address" autotextlist to show just
the entries for that style, but the "AE Name(Header)" autotextlist and that
category in the AutoText menu included entries from some other unrelated
style. When I went into the AutoText dialog and deleted a couple of the
unrelated entries, both AE groups started showing all the defined entries
from every style!

This is behavior I haven't seen before. I don't know whether the similarity
of the style names, or the non-alphabetic characters in them, might be
confusing Word. They're perfectly valid names according to the rules. But
you might want to experiment with using different style names.

Bob W wrote:
Jay Freedman" wrote:
Exactly what does the field code of the autotextlist popup say?

The field code text that I typed in when I created the autotextlist,
was: { AutoTextList "RightClickHere" \s "AE Name(Header)" \t
"RightClickHere" }

Curiously, if I use Alt-F9 to display the field code, the Field
Default Value part of this text is always missing (that's another
thing that has always puzzled me)... Once saved, if you redisplay it,
the field code always gets truncated to:
{ AutoTextList \s "AE Name(Header)" \t "RightClickHere" }


And what are the actual names of the styles you assigned to the two
groups of entries?

The actual style names a

AE Name(Header) (the style used when defining 11 autotextlist items)
AE Name+Address (the style used when defining 11 autotext items)

Nevetheless, both the Autotext Menu, and the AutoTextList, display
all 22 items.

BTW, I am putting the autotextlist in the document template
header....but even if I copy/paste it into the body of the template,
it still displays all 22 items.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Bob W]

I tried changing the names of the styles as you suggested; it still works
unpredictably and the unpredictableness is unfortunate misbehavior. Does
Microsoft abandon features, or abandon supporting features, without warning?
I wonder if with Word 2007 they just gave up supporting the autotextlist
feature on prior Word versions and turned all their programming resources to
fixing the new version's inevitable bugs. (Just a guess.) Not sure if
there's an equivalent to autotextlists in Word 2007.

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Bob,

I think you're right, it's buggy. I tried reproducing what you described.
While I didn't get exactly the same results, it didn't behave very nicely at
all. I was able to get just the "AE Name+Address" autotextlist to show just
the entries for that style, but the "AE Name(Header)" autotextlist and that
category in the AutoText menu included entries from some other unrelated
style. When I went into the AutoText dialog and deleted a couple of the
unrelated entries, both AE groups started showing all the defined entries
from every style!

This is behavior I haven't seen before. I don't know whether the similarity
of the style names, or the non-alphabetic characters in them, might be
confusing Word. They're perfectly valid names according to the rules. But
you might want to experiment with using different style names.

Bob W wrote:
Jay Freedman" wrote:
Exactly what does the field code of the autotextlist popup say?

The field code text that I typed in when I created the autotextlist,
was: { AutoTextList "RightClickHere" \s "AE Name(Header)" \t
"RightClickHere" }

Curiously, if I use Alt-F9 to display the field code, the Field
Default Value part of this text is always missing (that's another
thing that has always puzzled me)... Once saved, if you redisplay it,
the field code always gets truncated to:
{ AutoTextList \s "AE Name(Header)" \t "RightClickHere" }


And what are the actual names of the styles you assigned to the two
groups of entries?

The actual style names a

AE Name(Header) (the style used when defining 11 autotextlist items)
AE Name+Address (the style used when defining 11 autotext items)

Nevetheless, both the Autotext Menu, and the AutoTextList, display
all 22 items.

BTW, I am putting the autotextlist in the document template
header....but even if I copy/paste it into the body of the template,
it still displays all 22 items.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

[Bob W]

In case it helps someone else, I have noticed that Word constantly insists on
defaulting to storing autotext in the my Normal.dot template, even though I
am working in a different template. Because of this surreptitious default
behavior, it is repeatedly necessary during a working session to do an
Insert\Autotext\Autotext and at the bottom of the AutoCorrect dialog, and
change the "Look in" location back to the name of the template I am editing,
instead of my normal.dot template.

If I create an autotext item by mistake in the normal.dot template, and then
define an autotextlist in my new template, the autotextlist will show ALL
autotext definitions (in both the normal.dot and the new.dot) regardless of
what style I gave the autotextlist items in my new.dot.

At that point, to fix it, I have to go into the Organizer, copy the errant
autotext items from the normal.dot into my new.dot, delete them from
normal.dot, double check to make sure the "Look in" has not again reverted
back to my normal.dot, and then go back to each autotextlist item, highlight
it (not including the paragraph symbol), press Alt-F3, and tell Word "Yes, i
want to re-define the autotext entry" for each line item. After doing all
that, the autotextlist items will display properly.

This whole tedious and duplicative chain of repair events is required only
because of Word's surreptitious default that keeps changing the storage
location for all autotext items back to my normal.dot, without alerting me.
One can only wonder how many hundreds of thousands of man-hours are wasted,
worldwide, by a humanity struggling to make this feature function, while
Word's default methodically and surreptitiously torpedoes all their best
efforts.

I believe it's necessary to re-set the "Look in" only once during any
template editing session. However, you have to remember to do it every time
you re-open the template, BEFORE you do anything else. Each time you close
out of the template, the "Look in" reverts to normal.dot. I am not aware of
any Word setting that can alter this highly annoying default behavior.

Unfortunately, people don't work like Mr. Spock, with perfect, impeccable
logic and order; we create a number of autotext items and/or autotext lists,
close the template, try them out, re-open it, make more changes, close it,
test it, etc. So this Word default becomes a gigantic headache, posing a
constant corruption hazard to our work and productivity when we dare to work
with Autotextlists in Word's Twilight Zone.

(But when they work, the payoff is always very gratifying!)

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Bob,

I think you're right, it's buggy. I tried reproducing what you described.
While I didn't get exactly the same results, it didn't behave very nicely at
all. I was able to get just the "AE Name+Address" autotextlist to show just
the entries for that style, but the "AE Name(Header)" autotextlist and that
category in the AutoText menu included entries from some other unrelated
style. When I went into the AutoText dialog and deleted a couple of the
unrelated entries, both AE groups started showing all the defined entries
from every style!

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, think about this logically. If you didn't have Template X open for
editing, would you want all AutoText entries you created in a document based
on Template Y to be saved in Template X? I think what Word does makes sense.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Bob W" wrote in message
...
In case it helps someone else, I have noticed that Word constantly insists
on
defaulting to storing autotext in the my Normal.dot template, even though
I
am working in a different template. Because of this surreptitious default
behavior, it is repeatedly necessary during a working session to do an
Insert\Autotext\Autotext and at the bottom of the AutoCorrect dialog, and
change the "Look in" location back to the name of the template I am
editing,
instead of my normal.dot template.

If I create an autotext item by mistake in the normal.dot template, and
then
define an autotextlist in my new template, the autotextlist will show ALL
autotext definitions (in both the normal.dot and the new.dot) regardless
of
what style I gave the autotextlist items in my new.dot.

At that point, to fix it, I have to go into the Organizer, copy the errant
autotext items from the normal.dot into my new.dot, delete them from
normal.dot, double check to make sure the "Look in" has not again reverted
back to my normal.dot, and then go back to each autotextlist item,
highlight
it (not including the paragraph symbol), press Alt-F3, and tell Word "Yes,
i
want to re-define the autotext entry" for each line item. After doing all
that, the autotextlist items will display properly.

This whole tedious and duplicative chain of repair events is required only
because of Word's surreptitious default that keeps changing the storage
location for all autotext items back to my normal.dot, without alerting
me.
One can only wonder how many hundreds of thousands of man-hours are
wasted,
worldwide, by a humanity struggling to make this feature function, while
Word's default methodically and surreptitiously torpedoes all their best
efforts.

I believe it's necessary to re-set the "Look in" only once during any
template editing session. However, you have to remember to do it every
time
you re-open the template, BEFORE you do anything else. Each time you close
out of the template, the "Look in" reverts to normal.dot. I am not aware
of
any Word setting that can alter this highly annoying default behavior.

Unfortunately, people don't work like Mr. Spock, with perfect, impeccable
logic and order; we create a number of autotext items and/or autotext
lists,
close the template, try them out, re-open it, make more changes, close it,
test it, etc. So this Word default becomes a gigantic headache, posing a
constant corruption hazard to our work and productivity when we dare to
work
with Autotextlists in Word's Twilight Zone.

(But when they work, the payoff is always very gratifying!)

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Bob,

I think you're right, it's buggy. I tried reproducing what you described.
While I didn't get exactly the same results, it didn't behave very nicely
at
all. I was able to get just the "AE Name+Address" autotextlist to show
just
the entries for that style, but the "AE Name(Header)" autotextlist and
that
category in the AutoText menu included entries from some other unrelated
style. When I went into the AutoText dialog and deleted a couple of the
unrelated entries, both AE groups started showing all the defined entries
from every style!