Can you share autotext lists among users?

[IanGlinka]

I've searched the forums, and the internet... and I can't seem to find anything that will help me with this.

I want to share the autotext list among 10 networked users. Win2k Pro, Win2k DC. Word97.

The need to share, and place the normal.dot file on the network arose when one user's hard drive died, and all her hundreds of auto text entries were lost. Had the autotext entries (contained in normal.dot) been on the network, they would not have been lost.

I figured I might be able to kill two birds with one stone here by also sharing the autotext list among the users in real time. Is this possible or is this just wishful thinking?

I've tried to set a workgroup template directory and point all users to the same spot, but once 2 users open word at the same time, it locks the normal.dot file and doesn't let the other user update the autotext entries.

What's a guy supposed to do?

Ian

 

[mblaster]

See Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 207748

 

[IanGlinka]

Thanks for the reference, but that's not quite what I'm looking for.

I checked that out, and first of all, that's for Word 2000; I'm running Word 97. Also, I understand you can manually add autotext entries to other user's normal.dot files, but I want to know if there's a way to use the workgroup template normal.dot as a shared file so the autotext can be real-time instantaneously updated.

Ian

 

[madmondeoman]

If you want to share frequently used text within your organization, use AutoText. AutoText is stored in a template. Using the ORGANIZER (FORMAT/STYLE/ORGANIZER), you can copy AutoText entries from one template to another. Also, you can designate a workgroup template using TOOLS/OPTIONS/FILE LOCATIONS. Once this is accomplished, you can use the organizer to copy AutoText entries to the workgroup template. Now, as long as everyones Word options have been changed to look at the workgroup template, you can share AutoText entries easily. This is a great setup for legal firms that must reference the same laws and citations.