CHAPTER 12

Getting Smart with Text: Building Blocks, Quick Parts, Actions (Tags), and More

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Creating a document faster with Building Blocks and Quick Parts
• Creating and inserting AutoText entries
• Backing up and sharing Building Blocks
• Using, removing, and restoring Actions
• Understanding objects and linking versus embedding
• Inserting text from a file
• Pasting, dragging, and dropping text and other content
• Printing envelopes on the fly
• Saving envelopes as part of a letter
• Creating mailing labels

Certain types of written communication—such as legal passages, product warnings or disclaimers, or a company description—can or should be repeated almost verbatim whenever used. Rather than forcing you to retype such boilerplate text, Word offers you tools for storing and inserting commonly used text, as well as tools for recycling text from other sources.

Building Blocks and Quick Parts provide a gallery-like approach to creating and inserting boiler-plate content. You can take advantage of a menu of ready-to-use document parts that you can use to quickly develop a finished document. You can create your own Quick Parts, as well as AutoText entries that you may need to insert frequently in various documents. You also can insert a predesigned cover page to give a report a more polished start.

Enabling Actions—links that identify potential special text such as an address you might want to save to your contacts—similarly enables you to capture and reuse document information. And rather than creating document content, you can link, embed, or insert information from other files, as well as copy between documents. Finally, Word includes automated ways to create specialized documents for mailings—envelopes and labels.

This chapter shows you how to use all of these features so you can avoid reinventing the wheel.

Using Quick Parts and Building Blocks

Quick Parts and Building Blocks enable you to insert formatted text into a document with a single command. Word includes a number of predefined Building Blocks, including such features as preformatted page numbers, text boxes, and watermarks. Other chapters discuss the various ways to insert these items into a document, and in this chapter, you will see how to use the Building Blocks Organizer to do so as well. Quick Parts are essentially your own custom Building Blocks that you create and format for reuse in a document. They appear directly on a Quick Parts gallery so that they are easy to insert. This section delves into how to use both Quick Parts and Building Blocks.

Building Blocks versus Quick Parts

The distinction between Quick Parts and Building Blocks can be confusing. Quick Parts are a special subset of Building Blocks. If a Building Block belongs to the Quick Parts gallery, it will appear in the drop-down menu when you click Quick Parts in the Text group of the Insert tab, as shown in Figure 12.1. Items assigned to other galleries (tables, equations, headers, and so on) must be accessed through the full Building Blocks Organizer or the individual galleries for the respective document part type.

How do you decide what to place in the Quick Parts gallery? It's entirely up to you into which gallery you put something. However, you probably want to limit the Quick Parts gallery to items you need more frequently, as there is limited room in the gallery.

FIGURE 12.1

Click Quick Parts in the Text group to open the Quick Parts gallery.

Using the Building Blocks Organizer

If what you want isn't in the Quick Parts gallery, click Quick Parts in the Text group of the Insert tab, and then click Building Blocks Organizer to open the Building Blocks Organizer dialog box shown in Figure 12.2. Click any of the items in the Building blocks list at the left to see a preview of it at the right. Click any of the headers—Name, Gallery, Category, or Template—to sort the list. Note that your default list of Building Blocks may include slightly differing items, and may be sorted differently.

Click the item you want to insert and then click Insert. Word inserts the item in the way that was specified when it was created or added to the Building Blocks Organizer (content only, content in its own paragraph, or content in its own page).

FIGURE 12.2

Use the Building Blocks Organizer to change, delete, and insert Quick Parts.

Adding a new Building Block or Quick Part

If none of the prefabricated Building Blocks suits your needs, you can modify them or design your own from scratch. The Building Blocks feature enables you to save your work investment quickly and easily by adding it to the Building Blocks Organizer. The Building Blocks feature also enables you to name and categorize the parts you create, as well as place them into any of a number of galleries.

Adding a new Quick Part or Building Block is easy. If you have text, URLs, structures (tables, pictures, charts, content controls, etc.), and so on that you frequently reuse in different documents, you can save time and effort by saving them as distinct Building Blocks or Quick Parts.

Moreover, creating and using custom Building Blocks can help prevent mistakes and embarrassment. Have you ever inadvertently transposed two letters in your own company's URL? Have you ever mistyped a contract clause, leasing a building for ten years instead of one? By using Quick Parts and Building Blocks, you help avoid random careless errors. Of course, it is important to carefully proofread what you save as a Quick Part or Building Block.

Here's how to create you own Quick Part or Building Block:

1. Create and format the text or object you want to save as a gallery item, and then select it.
2. Click the Insert tab, and in the Text group, choose Quick Parts Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. This opens the Create New Building Block dialog box shown in Figure 12.3. If you are using a low screen resolution, you may not see Quick Parts on the button name and your button will look like the one shown in Figure 12.1.

   The ScreenTip for the correct button is Explore Quick Parts.

   FIGURE 12.3

   Organize your Building Blocks during the creation process to make them easier to find and use later.

   

   NOTE

   The Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery command is a misnomer. You're not saving to the Quick Parts gallery–you're creating a new Building Block, which you optionally can save to the Quick Parts gallery, if desired.

3. In the Name text box, type a name to use for the Building Block. As indicated earlier, if you have a series of items you intend to call Item 1, Item 2, and Item 3, it's better planning to call them 1Item, 2Item, and 3Item. This will enable you to use F3 shortcuts more efficiently, a topic you'll learn more about later in the chapter. Note that omitting the space in the name increases the chances of creating unique and unambiguous names for quick insertion using the F3 shortcut.
4. Open the Gallery drop-down list and click the desired gallery name. To have the item appear in the gallery portion of the Quick Parts menu, add it to the Quick Parts gallery. Add only items you need frequently and for which you need insertion flexibility to the Quick Parts gallery. Choosing the AutoText gallery enables you to insert the selection by typing the Building Block name, as described later. In choosing which gallery to use, make sure that you don't add items intended for a specific document area to the wrong gallery (for example, don't put a header item into the Footers gallery). You also should be consistent in order to make it easier to find things later. Note that you cannot create new gallery names. It's not a bad idea, however, to put things that are purely text into AutoText, and actual structures into the appropriate gallery (Tables, Text Boxes, Headers, Footers, and so on). Note that all Building Block items can be inserted with most AutoText methods, even if they aren't in the AutoText gallery. One exception, however, is that only items in the AutoText gallery can be inserted with the AutoComplete feature. More on this shortly.
5. Open the Category drop-down list and click the desired category. You can select General for your first few user-created Building Blocks. Choose Create New Category to make your own custom categories. In the Create New Category dialog box shown in Figure 12.4, type a descriptive name that will help you stay organized, and click OK. Placing too many Building Blocks in the General category can become a little unwieldy. As you create more Building Blocks, it will be important for you to create categories to organize them.

   FIGURE 12.4

   Categories can help you find Building Blocks more quickly later.

   

6. In the Description text box, type a little about what the Building Block is and where you'd use it. If the Building Block consists of text, before you open the Create New Building Block dialog box, you could copy all or the beginning of the text into the Clipboard, and then paste it into the Description box by pressing Ctrl+V. The text itself can serve as an excellent description.
7. Choose a save location from the Save in drop-down list. The default setting usually will be Building Blocks, which refers to the Building Blocks.dotx template file. This file usually is located in C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks1033 (or its 15 subfolder). However, you can instead choose to store Building Blocks in the template on which the current document is based, Normal.dotm, in any other currently loaded global template, or in a new .dotx file you create just for this purpose.

   TIP

   To create a new file for storing Building Block items, create a new blank document and save it as a .dotx file in C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks103315. (You may need to provide an administrator password if you are not signed in to Windows as an administrator when saving to the Program Files directory.) Restart Word, and the new file will then be included as a Save in location when you store new Building Block items.

8. Open the Options drop-down list and choose a default insertion method for the Building Block you're adding. Insert content only inserts the Building Block at the insertion point. You can also choose Insert content in its own paragraph or Insert content in its own page. Figure 12.5 shows the settings for a new Building Block holding the formatted and hyperlinked URL shown to the left of the dialog box.
9. Click OK.

   FIGURE 12.5

   Your entries for a new Building Block can include a custom Category and Save in location.

   

Inserting a Quick Part

As you saw earlier, to insert a Quick Part into your document you can click Quick Parts in the Text group of the Insert tab. The Quick Parts you have added appear in a gallery in the top of the menu.

Click a listed Quick Part to insert it into the current document at the insertion point. Or, for more precise control over how it's inserted, right-click the item for the list of options shown in Figure 12.6. Click one of the options at the top of the shortcut menu, such as Insert at End of Document, to choose the location for the inserted item. Note also that the shortcut menu includes the Edit Properties, and Organize and Delete commands that you can use to manage the Quick Part's settings.

FIGURE 12.6

Right-click a Quick Part in the gallery to see commands for inserting and managing it.

Inserting a Building Block

Given that many Building Blocks are not found on the Quick Parts gallery, you have to use other methods to insert them. You can use one of the following methods to insert a Building Block:

• Select the Building Block from its “home” gallery. For example, Footer Building Blocks appear in the Footer gallery that appears when you click Footer in the Header & Footer group of the Insert tab. See Chapter 16, “Setting Up the Document with Sections, Headers/Footers, and Columns,” to learn more about inserting headers and footers. If you saved the Building Block to the Quick Parts gallery, it will appear when you click the Quick Parts button in the Text group of the Insert tab.
• Click the Insert tab, click Quick Parts in the Text group, and then click Building Blocks Organizer. Select the desired Building Block in the Building blocks list at the left side of the Building Blocks Organizer, and then click Insert.

Using AutoComplete with AutoText Gallery Entries

Word 2003 and earlier versions included an AutoComplete feature that made it easy to save and reinsert frequently used text entries. You could start typing the entry, and then press Enter (see Figure 12.7) or F3 to insert the text. This functionality was removed from Word 2007 and then reinstated in Word 2010. The AutoComplete insertion techniques work for Building Blocks that you've saved to the AutoText gallery, as described earlier.

FIGURE 12.7

If you save a Building Block in the AutoText category, you can insert it by starting to type its name and then pressing Enter when the tooltip appears.

To use this feature, click in the location where you want to insert the AutoText, and start typing the name you assigned to the Building Block in the Name text box of the Create New Building Block dialog box. When the tooltip with the name appears as shown in the example in Figure 12.7, press Enter or F3. (This feature is known as AutoComplete.)

One key to remember is that you have to type the Name text box entry you entered for the AutoText Building Block in the Create New Building Block dialog box (refer to Figure 12.5), not the text of the entry itself (unless they are the same). You can refresh your memory about AutoText gallery names by clicking Quick Parts in the Text group of the Insert tab, and then point to AutoText; the name for each AutoText Building Block appears above the preview of its contents in the AutoText gallery. Similarly, you can open the Building Blocks Organizer to review the name for other Building Blocks assigned to the AutoText gallery you might want to insert with Enter or F3. You also can insert an AutoText entry using the gallery itself. Click the Insert tab, click Quick Parts in the Text group, point to AutoText, and click the desired entry.

Clearing Building Block Formatting

Word does not provide a way to store or insert Quick Parts or Building Block entries as plain text or unformatted text if you included added formatting such as character formatting when creating them. If you have a Building Block item that you want to insert but need it inserted without the formatting, you will have to use other means.

If you want Building Block items to be inserted in the most vanilla way possible, clear all formatting from the selection before adding it to the Building Blocks organizer. Or, on an ad hoc basis, you can selectively remove the formatting after inserting the item. Select the inserted text, and then click Clear All Formatting in the Font group of the Home tab.

Building Blocks: Need to Know

Working with Building Blocks can make you more productive. Initially setting things up might take a few extra minutes of thought and care, but ultimately the extra organization will yield dividends. Of course, if you're going to invest the time to create and enhance a resource, you're going to want to know how to protect that investment, as well as how to share the resource with others.

Backing up Building Blocks

As noted earlier, Building Blocks can be stored in any template that is accessible in the current document window. A template is currently accessible for any of five reasons:

• It is a Building Blocks template located in your Building Blocks folder. This folder usually is named C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks103315. The default storage file is named Built-In Building Blocks.dotx, although if you upgraded from an earlier version, it may be named just Building Blocks.dotx.
• It is Normal.dotm (stored in the location specified in File Options Advanced General section File Locations “User templates,” usually C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftTemplates).
• It is attached to the current document and is a template other than Normal.dotm.
• It is a global template located in your startup folder. You can choose the location of the startup folder by choosing File Options Advanced General File Locations Startup. The default location usually is C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWordSTARTUP.
• The template file itself is open in the current document window.

To find out where all the currently available Building Blocks are stored, in the Insert tab choose Quick Parts Building Blocks Organizer. Drag the header borders as necessary so that you can see the complete template names, as shown in Figure 12.8. Note that if you did not upgrade from an earlier version of Word, the number of AutoText items from Normal.dotm might be considerably smaller.

FIGURE 12.8

The Building Blocks Organizer shows the template locations where all currently available Building Blocks are stored.

To back up your Building Blocks, back up all the templates where they are stored. Note that files cannot be backed up while they are in use, so once you determine the name and location of the templates you need to back up, you need to close Word, use File Explorer in Windows 8 (Windows Explorer in Windows 7) to navigate to the locations of the template files, and copy them elsewhere (tape, backup drive, network backup location, CD, DVD, or another target).

Sharing Building Blocks

When you start developing Building Blocks, particularly ones you plan to share with others, it can be useful to deliberately create a new .dotx file to store your Building Blocks. To share a Building Block template file, give it a name other than the default Building Blocks.dotx. It's not a bad idea to date it too, so that someone to whom you give it will have a reference point with respect to earlier Building Block template files. For example, I might give one the name Lisa Bucki Building Blocks 2013.dotx.

To create such a file, create a new blank document and save it in .dotx format—preferably in the default storage location for user Building Blocks files as noted in the “Adding a new Building Block or Quick Part” section earlier in the chapter. Then specify this file as the Save in location for Building Blocks you wish to share.

You can then copy this file across a network, copy it to CD/DVD or other removable media, or email it to others. To use it, they should copy it to their own Building Blocks folder. This typically is C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks103315.

In sharing this file with others, make sure that they copy it to the Building Blocks folder and that they do not replace their own local copy of Building Blocks.dotx with it.

Copying Building Blocks

There is no built-in way to copy Building Blocks from one template to another en masse, but there is a way to move them one at a time. If you make a throwaway copy of the source file before moving the Building Blocks, you can simply discard it at the end of the process.

First, make a backup copy of both the source and destination templates. The destination template can be a new blank .dotx file stored in the default Building Blocks folder (see the previous section). In the case of the source, this is not a mere precaution, because the process actually removes Building Blocks from the source file. Make a throwaway copy of the source that you will use for this process, and maybe even name it throwaway-copy-source.dotx.

Second, make sure that both the destination template and the throwaway copy of the source are available. You can do this by putting both into the Document Building Blocks folder (C:Usersuser nameAppDataRoamingMicrosoftDocument Building Blocks103315).

Third, open the source template file (not a document based on it) to make sure its Building Blocks will be available, and leave it as the current or active document.

Fourth, choose Insert Text Quick Parts Building Blocks Organizer. Sort by template so you can focus your efforts only on the throwaway copy of the source file. Remember that any entry you change here will actually move the Building Block entry, not merely copy it.

Select an entry you want to move in the Building blocks list, and click Edit Properties. In the Modify Building Block dialog box, open the Save in drop-down list of available template locations, and then click the destination template to which you want the entry moved. Click OK. Repeat the process to move other Building Blocks, and then click Close to close the Building Blocks Organizer.

Deleting or changing a Building Block

You also can use the Building Blocks Organizer to delete or make changes to a Building Block. Open it by clicking the Quick Parts button in the Text group of the Insert tab. Click the item to delete in the Building Blocks list, and then click the Delete button. In the message box that asks you to confirm the deletion, click Yes.

If you want to make changes to the selected Building Block, click the Edit Properties button. The Modify Building Block dialog box with settings identical to those in the Create New Building Block dialog box show in Figure 12.5 appears. Make changes as desired, such as using the Gallery drop-down list to move it to another gallery. For example, you could click AutoText to transform the Building Block into one of the AutoText Gallery choices. Then click OK.

Using Building Blocks with the AutoText Field

Although they've renamed the feature from AutoText to Building Blocks, Word's basic infrastructure still treats Building Block entries the same way that Word 2003 and earlier treated AutoText entries.

This means that in addition to inserting Building Blocks into your documents in the manner indicated in this chapter, you can also insert them using the AutoText field—not just items in the AutoText Gallery, but all Building Blocks. Suppose that you have a series of templates in which the identical Building Block name is used for a variety of formulations of the same concept. For example, you might have a Building Block entry named Exposure Quote. In one template it might say one thing, in another something else, and in a third template still something else.

In place of an actual exposure quote in a document, however, you could instead use an AutoText field to refer to the Exposure Quote Building Block. That way, whenever the Building Block for the underlying template changes, the Exposure Quote in all documents based on that template changes as well, simply by your updating the field in the document.

To use a field rather than insert the actual Building Block itself, choose Insert Text Quick Parts Field. The dialog box shown in Figure 12.9 will appear. With Categories set to All, click on AutoText in the Field names list. In the AutoText name list, at center, click the Building Block you want to insert, and click OK.

FIGURE 12.9

AutoText entries can be inserted by reference with a field.

Note that even though the field name is AutoText, this method works for all Building Blocks. Fields are discussed in detail in Chapter 23, “Automating Document Content with Fields.”

Inserting a Cover Page

Many formal report documents require a cover page that includes not only the document's title, but information about its author and when it was written. Although you can insert a cover page from the Building Blocks Organizer, the Insert tab also has a separate gallery just for cover pages.

1. Open or create the document for which you want to add a cover page.
2. Click the Insert tab, and then click Cover Page in the Pages group. The Cover Page gallery opens.
3. Scroll down to view the available cover pages (Figure 12.10), and then click the one to insert.

   FIGURE 12.10

   Select a cover page to insert from the gallery.

   

4. Fill in the placeholders on the cover page. For example, click the [Document title] placeholder and type a title. To remove an unneeded control placeholder, right-click it and click Remove Content Control.

Understanding Actions

Action options are special kinds of links that are associated with names, places, addresses, telephone numbers, and financial symbols, to name a few. When enabled, an Additional Actions choice appears when you right-click an item that has associated Actions, as shown in Figure 12.11.

FIGURE 12.11

Additional Actions options enable you to perform special commands for a limited selection of associated items.

If you click the Add to Contacts choice in the Additional Actions submenu shown in Figure 12.11, the new Contact window shown in Figure 12.12 opens. Notice the phone number that is right-clicked on in Figure 12.11 already appears as the Business phone number entry in Figure 12.12. In this instance, you could add additional information about the contact and then save the contact.

The choices in the Additional Actions submenu will vary depending on the nature of the text you right-click and what the associated action does. For example, say a colleague sends you a document with meeting minutes that includes the date for the next meeting. If you right-click that meeting date and click Additional Actions, you can then click either Schedule a Meeting or Show My Calendar. This example illustrates how Actions can help you better manage your schedule, contact information, and more.

FIGURE 12.12

Additional Actions include creating a new contact based on a phone number in a document.

Enabling Actions

Actions are not enabled in Word by default. In order for the Additional Actions choice to appear in the shortcut menu, you have to enable Actions. Choose File Options Proofing AutoCorrect Options Actions tab. At the top of the tab, click to check the Enable additional Actions in the right-click menu option, as shown in Figure 12.13. Figure 12.13 shows which specific Actions are checked by default when you initially enable Actions. You can check any or all of the other three Actions to enable them as well. After changing Action settings, click OK twice to close the AutoCorrect and Word Options dialog boxes and apply your changes.

FIGURE 12.13

You can enable eight different Actions in Word.

More Actions and properties

When you click some of the Actions in the Available Actions list of the Actions tab, the Properties button beside the list becomes enabled. Clicking the button launches your system's web browser and displays an article about properties for Actions. Clicking the More actions button, shown in Figure 12.13, takes you to a website where you can download additional Action add-ins. One of them—the ActiveDocs Action—even enables you to create your own custom Actions.

Inserting Objects and Files

Using a technology known as object linking and embedding (OLE), you can create multimedia and multidimensional documents that incorporate components from a variety of programs—and not just Office applications. A single document, for example, might contain text from Word, data and charts from Excel, and sounds or video clips from some other program.

Think of an object as a unit of information that comes from a specific program. For example, a text selection in Word might be considered an object by Excel or some other program, or even by Word itself under different circumstances. Word tables or WordArt creations can be objects as well, as can Word equations, or even whole Word documents. All or part of an Excel worksheet might be an object, as might a PDF file from Adobe, a MIDI file from a music program, an MP3 or WMA song file from a media player, and so on.

Each different object has associated with it an owner or client program. That's the program that provides the muscle needed to create, edit, or display/play the object in its original form. To see the kinds of objects that you can insert in a Word document and make the insertion:

1. In the Text group of the Insert tab of the Ribbon, click the Object drop-down arrow, and then click Object, as shown in Figure 12.14. You also could just click the Object button without clicking the drop-down.

   FIGURE 12.14

   To insert an object, click the Object tool on the Insert tab.

   

   Word displays the Create New tab in the Object dialog box, shown in Figure 12.15. The contents of the Object type list depends entirely on the programs installed on your computer. The more programs installed, the longer the list of OLE-compatible objects Word displays. Many of them you probably won't recognize, and you might wonder where they came from. Creating a new object this way and exploring the options available is one approach to finding out more about the object in question.

   FIGURE 12.15

   The more programs you have installed on your computer, the more likely you are to have a lot of different object types listed in the Object dialog box.

   

2. Click the desired kind of object in the Object type list.
3. Click OK.
4. Create the object in its owner program, and then save and close it.

Linking versus embedding objects in Word

When it comes to using bits and pieces of other programs’ data in Word, you have two options: linking or embedding. The method you just used in the prior steps is an example of embedding. The inserted object exists only within the Word document where you created it, and does not exist as a separate file. If you refer again to Figure 12.15, you'll see that the Object dialog box includes a Create from File tab. Click that tab to see the choices shown in Figure 12.16. Use the Browse button to open the Browse dialog box, navigate to and select the file to insert, and then click Open. On the Create from File tab, click the Link to file check box as shown in Figure 12.16 to link the inserted object to its original source file. (If you do not click this check box, the object will be embedded instead.) Then click OK to finish inserting the object.

When you link an object, you store that object's location in Word. Later, when you or someone else chooses to “view” the object, Word checks the operating system to determine which program “owns” that type of file. It then uses that program to open the file. For some kinds of objects, particularly those owned by other Office programs, Word can display the object's content in place, as part of the Word document. For others, the program opens and the object is displayed in the owner program.

FIGURE 12.16

You also can insert an existing file into a document, and use the Link to file option to link rather than embed it.

When you embed an object, a copy of the object is stored within the Word document. Depending on the size of the object, this can add greatly to the Word document size and can make Word files unwieldy. Embedding is a way to guarantee that the object is available when using the Word document, though.

As with pictures, the decision to embed versus link is driven by considerations of size, maintenance/updates, and availability. All other factors aside, an embedded object will result in a larger file than an object that is linked. This can create difficulties in emailing the Word document, transporting it on small removable media (SD card, USB flash drive, and so on), or even storing it. However, assuming these issues are not insurmountable—and they are increasingly less so, given the falling cost of storage and the increasing availability of high-speed Internet access—embedding provides assurance that the object's data will be present when needed.

In contrast, a linked-only object will work only if the original object file remains in the same storage location and hasn't been renamed. For example, if the object originally was in the same folder as the file that contains it, location should not be an issue. However, if the object originally was in a folder named Lisa Media but is now in a folder named Karen Media, the linked item will not display correctly.

On the other hand, if you have updated the contents of the source file but kept the identical name and folder, a link to it will reflect the changes, displaying the new contents in place of the old when you open the document and update the link.

For example, suppose you need to share some Excel data with a colleague within a Word document stored on your organization's network. You insert the Excel file into the Word document with the Link to file check box checked. Later, you edit the data in the Excel file, which is also stored on the network. When your colleague subsequently opens the Word document from the network, the message about updating links shown in Figure 12.17 appears. Clicking Yes at this message includes the latest data in the linked object.

FIGURE 12.17

When you open a document with linked content, Word asks you whether to update the document with the changes in the linked information.

Displaying as icons versus content

When you insert an object into the current file, you have the option to display the content or display only an icon. If you choose the Display as icon option, shown unchecked in Figures 12.15 and 12.16, the object will still have functionality—you will be able to double-click it to open the owner application—but you will not be able to see the content inside the Word document.

Figure 12.18 shows three icons for inserted content. The one on the left represents Excel content. You can't see the content itself, but the icon clearly shows you that it represents spreadsheet information. In most cases, you probably will not want to insert visual content from other Office applications as an icon, because the point is usually to see the content itself. The next two icons represent inserted WMA song files. Word doesn't have the capability to properly display song content inside the Word window, so the file appears as an icon regardless of whether you specify that option. The middle icon was inserted with Display as icon unchecked, and so you can see its picture shows the Windows 8 Music app, the program that the song will play in when you double-click the icon. Display as icon was checked when the third icon was inserted, and Word gave it a generic package icon that provides no clue about what would happen if you double-clicked the icon. The content type and your needs will determine whether you want to display inserted files as icons.

FIGURE 12.18

Some objects, such as music files, always insert as icons; you simply control how the icon looks.

Inserting Text from Files

The other option available when you click the Object drop-down arrow in the Text group of the Insert tab, as shown in Figure 12.14, is Text from File. This command can be useful when you are pulling together a large document using content from a variety of other source documents. In some cases those other documents might have been written or might be in the process of being written by others. Or you might be working from a PDF from another source that contains content you need to update, such as information from a corporate annual report or data from a colleague's study that you need to cite in the current document. Or you might be creating a contract and need similar content from prior contracts you've written. Inserting an existing file saves work and ensures accuracy and consistency between documents.

Inserting the file

The file you want to insert need not be open when you add it into the current document. To insert a file into the current document:

1. Position the insertion point at the location where you'd like to insert the file in the current document.
2. In the Text group of the Insert tab on the Ribbon, click the Object drop-down arrow, and then click Text from File. The Insert File dialog box appears.
3. Navigate to the target file and select it.
4. Use the Insert button to determine how to insert the file. You can click the Insert button itself to insert the file, or you can click the Insert button drop-down arrow and then click Insert as Link to insert a linked copy of the file's contents, as shown in Figure 12.19.

   FIGURE 12.19

   You can insert a file directly or insert a link to it.

   

If the source file is being maintained separately, and might change, then choose Insert as Link so you can update the material in the current document when the source changes. If the source is a finished document and you simply want to incorporate the contents, choose Insert.

Note the additional option button in Figure 12.19, Range. If the source file contains bookmarks or named ranges (as used in Excel), use Range to specify the exact location of the source material.

If you choose Insert as Link, an INCLUDETEXT field code is inserted, rather than the file's text. However, that might be what you want, particularly if the file's contents aren't straightforward. If the source document contains field codes, for example, you likely will want to control exactly what happens when it is inserted into the current file. Therefore, immediately after inserting the link, right-click and choose Edit Field. As shown in Figure 12.20, you can now adjust the field code options so that the included text behaves as you think it should. See Chapter 23 for additional information about fields.

FIGURE 12.20

After inserting a link to a file, right-click the link and choose Edit Field to choose how you want the inserted file's contents handled.

Handling formatting issues

When you insert the contents of a file using the Text from File option—whether you insert the actual contents or a link—the styles of the current document are applied to the incoming file. This may change the formatting of the inserted text, or it may not, depending on whether the inserted text relies on styles or has a lot of direct character and paragraph formatting applied. If the latter is the case, the inserted document's appearance probably won't change much.

For example, it's possible for a document template to contain additional formatting information, such as information about paper size, orientation, margins, and other Page Layout settings that are not incorporated in a document's styles. When you insert that document, all of the Page Layout settings will be discarded, and the Page Layout settings for the file where you inserted the text will take precedence.

If the file holding the text to be inserted was based on a particular template and you want to retain the same formatting settings supplied by the template, you need to create a new document based on that same template. Then use the Text from File command to deposit the contents of an existing document into the new document. This way, all the desired document formatting will remain in place.

Pasting, Dragging, and Dropping Content into a Document

The Object tool on the Insert tab isn't the only means of depositing objects into a document. Two additional tools at your disposal are dragging and dropping, and using the Clipboard, which you learned about in Chapter 8, “Cutting, Copying, and Pasting Using the Clipboard.” The method you'll use will depend on whether you need to insert all or part of a document's contents into your Word document.

Dragging from the Explorer

To insert an existing file into a Word document directly from your operating system, open Windows Explorer (Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8) and navigate to the location of the object (file) you want to insert. If possible, position both windows so that you can see the source and the destination at the same time. Using the right mouse button (you'll see why in a moment), drag the object from the Explorer window and drop it into the Word document. A shortcut menu presents the options shown in Figure 12.21.

FIGURE 12.21

When you use the right mouse button to drag and drop an object, Word lets you choose a Drop option.

Note that Move Here is a little misleading when you're dragging objects from a folder window into Word. If you choose Move, Word actually copies. In other words, the only real options are Copy Here, which inserts the file's contents into the document at the insertion point, and Create Hyperlink Here. If you choose the latter, Word creates a standard hyperlink to the object. When you Ctrl+click on the hyperlink from Word, the default program associated with the file type is opened to display, play, edit, or otherwise handle the file.

Dragging from another open program

If you don't want to insert an entire document into the current document, you can drag a selection from another open document. What happens when you drop the content into Word depends on what is selected and being dragged, and what the source application is—Word or another Office application such as PowerPoint or Excel.

Dragging text

If you drag a text selection between two open Office documents, the default behavior in most cases is for the selection to be moved to the target location. Therefore, I strongly suggest that you make dragging with the right mouse button your standard default dragging behavior. Even if you do want to move the text, it's best to be informed about exactly what will happen.

When right-dragging from one Word document to another, you often will be presented with an additional option or two, as shown in Figure 12.22. Here, notice the two competing options: Shortcut versus Hyperlink.

FIGURE 12.22

Right-dragging text may make additional options available: Link Here and Create Shortcut Here.

If you choose Create Shortcut Here, Word inserts an OLE_LINK to the source document, and includes a reference to the file name and the exact location in a LINK object that it creates in the target document. The result in the target document is a Word object (using the Word icon), which you can double-click to open the source location.

Choosing Link Here hyperlinks the text in the source document and again inserts an OLE_LINK in the target document. In this case, the linked text appears in the document. In the target document, you can right-click the linked content, point to Linked Document Object in the shortcut menu, and then click Open Link to display the source.

The results are similar, but the utility in the target document is a little different. Which method you use should be determined by which one offers you the desired utility and effect.

Dragging other objects

What happens when you drag other objects depends a lot on the program and the extent to which that program supports dragging and dropping. You can't just assume that what you want to happen will actually happen—even if the source program is another Office 2013 program.

For example, if you try to drag a graphic from PowerPoint into Word, the result will probably surprise you. PowerPoint will not let you drag a graphic or chart outside of its own window. You will have to experiment to see whether dragging and dropping works between particular programs.

The Paste alternative

When dragging and dropping doesn't work, you can fall back to copy and paste, which was covered in depth in Chapter 8. With some programs that do not support dragging, such as the PowerPoint example just described, copying and pasting is the only option. Similarly, use copy and paste when you want to grab information from non-Office programs, such as Internet Explorer.

Use the source program's supported features to select the desired item, right-click the selection, and choose Copy or press Ctrl+C to copy the item to the Clipboard. Move to the Word document and click where you want to deposit the Clipboard's contents. If you're positive about the result you'll get, click Paste (in the Home tab's Clipboard group) or press Ctrl+V. If you're unsure about your options, click the Paste button arrow in the Home tab's Clipboard group and choose Paste Special.

The options that appear vary greatly depending on the nature of the item and the source program. Increasingly, the default Action is HTML Format, as shown in Figure 12.23. Note the top option listed: Microsoft Word Document Object. While it's not clear that that option would be the most useful one, it's equally unclear that HTML Format would be. Click a choice in the list, and click OK. If the results don't have the destination you need, press Ctrl+Z to unto the paste, and try another Paste Special alternative.

FIGURE 12.23

Many Clipboard items default to being pasted as HTML.

Printing Envelopes and Labels Automatically

Other tools that Word provides to save you time and prevent the need to create certain types of document content from scratch include the tools for printing envelopes and labels. Creating either can be as simple as clicking just a few tools, typing an address, and clicking Print. Word can send envelopes or labels directly to your printer, or it can add an envelope to a letter document so that you can print new envelopes as needed (for example, when you have recurring correspondence with a recipient). Similarly, you can print directly to labels using Word's tools, or you can save the labels to a file. This can be useful when you have recurring needs—such as sending mail to a membership or employee roster—especially when the underlying database doesn't change often.

Printing an Envelope

Use the Envelopes choice in the Create group of the Mailings tab on the Ribbon to start the process for creating an envelope. Here's an overview of the steps in the process; the rest of this section goes into more detail about some of the settings:

1. Turn on your printer and insert a blank envelope in the appropriate tray with the appropriate orientation. Most printers have an icon on the tray that indicates how to insert an envelope.
2. If the recipient's address appears in the current document, select it and press Ctrl+C to copy it. This will save you a bit of retyping later.
3. Click the Mailings tab, and then click Envelopes in the Create group. The Envelopes and Labels dialog box opens.
4. Click the Delivery address text box, and either type an address or press Ctrl+V to paste any address you previously copied.
5. Click the Return address text by and type your return address. If a previously entered return address appears and it remains correct, you can skip this step. Your finished entries might resemble those in Figure 12.24.

   FIGURE 12.24

   Enter envelope delivery and return addresses, and click Print.

   

6. Click Print to send the document to your printer.

Specifying the delivery address

With an address selected, when you click the Envelope tool, Word usually copies the selection into the Delivery address field. If nothing is selected, Word will try to guess where the address is, and often gets it right. The more complex the document (usually a letter), however, the worse Word's guesses are. For best results, pre-select the address and copy it to the Clipboard. You can then paste the contents of the Clipboard into the Delivery address field as shown in the example in Figure 12.24.

If you don't already have the address in the document you're writing but it is in your Outlook contacts list, you can insert an address from your contacts list using the Insert Address button above the Delivery address field. Clicking it opens the Select Name dialog box, shown in Figure 12.25. Click the address you want, and then click OK to copy it to the Delivery address field.

FIGURE 12.25

You can use addresses from your Outlook Address Book.

Notice in Figure 12.24 that the delivery and return addresses appear in all capital letters, no punctuation, and with two spaces between the state and ZIP code. The addresses are formatted this way to comply with USPS addressing standards. While the Post Office will deliver your mail even when you don't follow the mailing standards, it's best to get in the habit of following them for envelopes and labels to ensure the most prompt delivery of your items. After entering a Delivery address (or inserting it from your address book) or Return address, select all of the text in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, right-click it, and click Font. Click to check the All caps check box in the Font dialog box, and then click OK. You can then edit the entry to eliminate punctuation as needed.

Specifying the return address

By default, for the return address, Word uses the address provided in File Options Advanced tab General Mailing address. If you plan to print a lot of envelopes from Word, you can save time in the long run by filling in your complete address there.

Alternatively, you can use an address from your Outlook address book using the button above the field, as described in the “Specifying the delivery address” section. Or you can type an address or paste one in from the Clipboard. If you modify the Return address field in any way (that is, from the way it's supplied from the Advanced tab's Mailing address field) before clicking Print, Word prompts you about whether to make it the default as shown in Figure 12.26. Although Word doesn't indicate this, clicking Yes to the prompt automatically copies this address to the Mailing address field in Word Options, so don't say yes if you're printing an envelope for somebody else who just happens to be visiting.

FIGURE 12.26

If you select Yes here, Word transfers this address to the Mailing address field in the Advanced tab in Word Options.

Choosing options

Use the Options button in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box to make changes to the way Word formats and positions text on the envelope (including envelope size), as well as how Word prints the envelope. Clicking the button opens the Envelope Options dialog box, before you print the envelope.

Envelope options

Use the Envelope Options tab, shown in Figure 12.27, to set the envelope size and to adjust the Delivery and Return address fonts and positions on the envelope. Word provides more than two dozen preset standard envelope sizes. However, if you have something nonstandard, set Envelope size to Custom size, enter new Width and Height settings in the Envelope Size dialog box that appears, and click OK.

To change the fonts used for the Delivery or Return addresses for this envelope only, click either of the Font buttons and make your changes. You can also change the position of both of the addresses by specifying the distance from the left and top. Choosing Auto leaves everything up to Word, which has preset distances based on the envelope size selected.

FIGURE 12.27

Word offers dozens of built-in envelope sizes, and you can control address appearance and positioning.

Changing the default envelope formatting

Though Word doesn't let you change the default fonts for the Delivery and Return addresses using the font options shown previously, you can change them by modifying two styles. The methods for fully changing the Return address and Delivery address styles are different, however.

To modify the Return address style, follow the instructions in the “Adding the envelope to the current document” section later in this chapter to add the envelope to the current document. Strictly speaking, this isn't essential, but it makes gaining access to the address style straightforward. You can delete the envelope from the document once you've modified the style.

After the envelope has been added to the document, click in the Return address and press Ctrl+Shift+S to activate the Apply Styles task pane, and note that the Envelope Return style displays under Style Name. In the Apply Styles task pane, click Modify. In the Modify Style dialog box, use the settings provided to change the Return address style as needed. When you're done, enable the New documents based on this template check box, and click OK.

If you want to change just the font or other formatting of the delivery address itself, the process just described will work. However, it will not let you save changes to the position of the delivery address. Did you notice that the delivery address is inside a frame, and that the frame can be used to position the delivery address? Thanks to this clever device, if you want to change the default position of the delivery address, a different method is needed.

Display the Envelopes tab in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, and ensure that an address is contained inside the Delivery address box. Click Options. Using the Delivery Address Font control, change the font settings as desired. Use the From left and From top text boxes to set the position to the desired location on the envelope. Click OK when you're done.

Back in the Envelopes tab, click Add to Document to add the envelope to the top of the document. Choose File Options Add Ins. Choose Templates from the Manage drop-down list, and then click Go. Click the Organizer button at the bottom of the Templates and Add-ins dialog box. In the Organizer's Styles tab, in the left list, it should display at least some of the styles in the current document. On the right, it should show the styles in the current document's template. Click Envelope Address in the current document's listing of styles, and then click Copy to copy that style to the template. If prompted, confirm that this is what you want to do, and then click Close.

If prompted later to save changes to the underlying template, don't forget to say Yes. Now any envelopes you create in the future in documents based on that template will use your new Delivery address settings.

Printing options

The other tab in the Envelope Options dialog box is for Printing Options, shown in Figure 12.28. Note that you can also get to the Printing Options tab by double-clicking Feed in the main Envelopes tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box. Choose the options you need, set the Feed from source, and click OK.

FIGURE 12.28

Word provides a wide range of positioning options for printing envelopes.

Adding electronic postage and e-postage properties

If you installed electronic postage software, you can add electronic postage by clicking the Add electronic postage option, and adjust your options using E-postage Properties. Different software packages feature different options. If you don't have electronic postage software, you'll see the message box shown in Figure 12.29.

FIGURE 12.29

Word knows whether or not you've installed electronic postage software!

Adding the envelope to the current document

After you enter all the addressing information and set options in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, you can use the Add to Document option if you want to save an envelope with a letter or other document, rather than clicking Print to send the envelope directly to the printer. For example, suppose you routinely send an invoice once a month, and you're in the habit of using last month's invoice as a template for this month's. If you add the envelope the first time, you won't have to go through the envelope-creation process each time. If your printer trays are flexible, in fact, you can save additional work by having the envelope and letter print to different trays.

The Add to Document option is also useful if you want to change the default formatting (as shown earlier in the “Changing the default envelope formatting” section), or even if you simply want to preview the envelope before committing it to paper.

Creating Labels

Word offers a wide variety of label options that work with hundreds of labels from a number of manufacturers. If you found the box of labels in the office supply store, there's an excellent chance that Word's vast label repertoire can handle it. In those rare cases when you need a label Word has never heard of, there's an excellent chance that it has one that matches the dimensions. Even when that high probability isn't met, you can still use the custom label feature to create one that works.

The label creation process works similar to creating and printing an envelope. To begin, click Labels in the create group of the Mailings tab on the Ribbon to display the Labels tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box, shown in Figure 12.30. If the current document contains something that Word thinks is an address, it will use that address in the Address field. Type or paste the address in the Address field as needed. Or if you're creating return address labels, click to enable Use return address to insert your address from the Mailing address field in the Advanced tab in Word Options.

FIGURE 12.30

Print a single label or a full sheet.

Choosing a label type

To select the label type that matches the printable labels you purchased, click the label preview in the Label section, or click the Options button. Both display the Label Options dialog box shown in Figure 12.31. Under Printer information, select the type of printer you have. Though you might not have seen a tractor feed or continuous feed impact printer or matrix printer in the past 10 years or so, they do still exist. Many shipping companies still use them precisely because they are an efficient way of having thousands of labels at the ready. Chances are good that most Bible readers, however, have single sheet–oriented printers (which covers most laser and inkjet printers), so you can likely just leave the Page printers option button selected.

Under Label information, choose the maker of the labels you purchased from the Label vendors drop-down list, and then select the Product number for the labels you are printing. Note that the size information is shown under Label information.

FIGURE 12.31

In Label Options, you can select any of literally hundreds of different labels.

For additional information, as well as to modify the label if the default settings don't meet your needs, click the Details button to display the dialog box shown in Figure 12.32. Notice that when you change any of the settings, the Label name, which begins as grayed out, suddenly becomes available for editing. Type a new name. If you're using a given label, it's not a bad idea to make the new name a variation of the built-in name. If you know from the outset that you're going to create a custom label, you can use the New Label button instead of Details. Either way, click OK when you finish creating the new label format.

FIGURE 12.32

It's easy to modify a label's settings.

Choosing how many to print

As shown in Figure 12.30, Word can print a full page of the same label, or it can print a single label. What about a full page of different addresses? That's a different story and one that gets told in Chapter 22, “Data Documents and Mail Merge.”

If you choose the Single label option, Word lets you specify which Row and Column on the sheet of labels that you want to print to. If you're careful, you can print a single label from a sheet, use the next slot over for the next label (for example, at a later time), and so on. This helps you avoid wasting labels.

Printing or creating a new label document

As for envelopes, you can click the Print document to send the label(s) directly to the printer. Be sure you've loaded the blank label page in the printer beforehand. Use the New Document button to create a new document containing the label(s). In the new document, you'll see that the label feature relies heavily upon Word's table formatting, as shown in Figure 12.33. To make it perfectly obvious that this is a table, it might be necessary to turn on gridline display as well as nonprinting formatting marks. To turn on gridlines, in the Table Tools Layout tab, click View Gridlines in the Table group. To turn on nonprinting formatting marks, press Ctrl+Shift+8. Now both gridlines and cell markers should be visible.

If you want to use multiple addresses on a sheet, this is the first step. You can, of course, type the addresses into the table cells shown. Or you can convert the current file into a data document (a la mail merge), associate a data file with it, and populate the cells with Word merge fields. See Chapter 22 to learn how to use mail merge.

FIGURE 12.33

When you insert a page of labels, the Table Tools contextual tabs appear.

Summary

In this chapter you've learned about a number of automated features in Word 2013 that help you build particular types of document content or reuse content that you've already created. Among other things, now you know how to:

• Create your own Building Blocks
• Make some Building Blocks appear in the Quick Parts gallery
• Back up and share your Building Blocks
• Use AutoComplete to insert Building Block content
• Make Additional Actions options appear in the shortcut menu when you right-click certain types of text
• Selectively remove Actions you neither want nor need, while keeping the ones you want
• Choose whether to link or embed an object from another file
• Use the Text from File option to insert the contents from another file at the insertion point in the current file
• Use the right mouse button strategically to control dropping options
• Set up and print envelopes and labels
• Save a sheet of labels or an envelope for future use
• Store your return address in Word Options