Sharing AutoText Entries

David wondered if there is a way that a small group of workers can share the same set of AutoText entries, without each of them needing to set up their own entries.

AutoText entries are stored in templates. Even if you don't specify a particular template to be the recipient of a new AutoText entry, it is still stored in a template--the Normal.dot template.

If you want to share AutoText entries, the key is to get the entries out of the Normal.dot template and into a different template that you can all share. Suppose, for a moment, that you store the AutoText entries in a template called Group.dot. This template could be stored in a mutually accessible network folder, and then referenced by a shortcut in each user's Startup folder. (That's the Word Startup folder, which is identified by choosing Tools | Options | File Locations and looking at the Startup entry.)

In order to put AutoText entries into the shared Group.dot template, you can either create them from scratch and specify that they be placed there, or you can use the Organizer to transfer the AutoText entries from one template (such as Normal.dot) to another (such as the shared template).