A practical guide to building blocks, document properties, drop-down lists, and date pickers.
You likely have a template in your organization that you and your colleagues use for a similar purpose but for different projects or departments. Updating information such as a project or department name, and making sure you’ve caught every occurrence, can be time-consuming. Missing even one instance can affect your credibility.
Microsoft Word includes several tools that can turn a standard template into a flexible document that is easy to reuse while helping keep information consistent and professional.
Build header and footer galleries
You likely already know about using document themes to achieve a cohesive look with color and font. But there are more elements you may need to add to your documents. For example, in an organization that has multiple divisions, you may need to brand your document with different logos.
Save each logo as a custom header so you can switch between branding variations quickly and easily.
-
Open the header field by double-clicking at the top of your Word document.
-
Insert>Pictures to add your logo. Adjust size and position.
-
With your header selected, click Header and select Save Selection to Header Gallery.
Repeat this process for each logo or header variation used by your organization.
You can build a footer gallery the same way, adding a logo or other custom items at the bottom of each page.
Whenever you need to replace the header or footer, simply select them from the header or footer gallery.
These headers and footers are known as building blocks. You can access them through Insert>Quick Parts>Building Blocks Organizer, where you can view or modify them.
Assign document properties
You can add customization in the body of your document by using document properties. This is especially useful for information you need to change that occurs in many places throughout your document. If you want to make a document easy for multiple departments to use, you can use a property like “Category” to represent the department name.
Go to Insert>Quick Parts>Document Property>Category.
A box will appear in your document:
Replace [Category] with Department Name so authors know what information to enter.
You can then copy and paste the property wherever the department name needs to appear. Every instance of the Category property is linked. When an author updates one instance (for example, changing it to Marketing), Word updates all other instances of that same property.
You can also update properties using File>Info>Properties>Advanced Properties, where you can update all document properties at the same time. Below you can see that Department Name shows in the Category field.
Insert drop-down lists
Use a drop-down list to let authors choose from a predefined set of options.
You will need to enable the Developer tab in Word to access these tools.
On the Developer tab, in the Controls panel, click the icon for Drop-Down List Content Control.
An empty drop-down list will appear in your document. Keep the item selected and click Properties.
Enter a Title for your list and then click Add to enter your choices.
In this example, the Marketing department has created a list of services it offers.
After a selection is made, the control blends into the document and will appear like regular text until it is selected.
Add date pickers
Adding a date picker helps ensure that authors can quickly enter dates in a consistent format. This eliminates confusion about whether the month or day should appear first.
On the Developer tab, in the Controls panel, click the icon for Date Picker Content Control.
A drop-down calendar will appear in your document.
Keep the item selected and click Properties to enter a title and set your preferred date format. Authors can select their date and change it later if needed.
Reduce errors with built-in Word tools
Tools like quick parts, document properties, drop-down lists, and date pickers help reduce repetitive edits and minimize errors, while making documents easier for authors to complete correctly. Taking a little time to set up these tools can save hours of rework later and help ensure every version of your document is accurate and polished.
About the Author
More Content by Catherine Haggerty
