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General discussion

MS Word - select paragraphs I want to use from a template

Sep 21, 2005 7:50PM PDT

Hi,

I am fairly new to MS Word (xp edition) and I would like to somehow create a document and each time I use it I can select different paragraphs by putting a tick or something beside it and when it prints it will print only the paragraphs I have ticked.

e.g. I have 3 paragraphs which all say different things, but have to select one. I would like to select the paragraph I want to use, then move onto the next set of paragraphs & select a one from that & so on.....

I was thinking maybe I'd have to put it into a transparent table & have a colnum before the paragraph that I can put a bullet point or tick in which would mean that paragraph is to be printed.

Maybe there is an alternative program out there that would allow me to do this?

I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense, its kind of hard to explain

Thanks in advance for you help.
Ben

Discussion is locked

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Re: select paragraphs.
Sep 21, 2005 8:59PM PDT

Ben,

This is not the way Word works.

What I should do:
- Make a template with ALL paragraphs you will be able to want to print.
- Open a new document based on this template. It will show everything.
- Select and delete all paragraphs (for each paragraph, repeatedly press f8, until it is selected; then press del).
- Save and/or print the finished document.

An alternative would be to make a macro that walks through each set, asks you to select 1 paragraph and then deletes the other ones. It shouldn't be too difficult, I think, but I'm not well versed in Word macro's.

Or use Words Autocorrect feature. It can replace any text with any other text. So you type: A1 B3 C2 D4 and Word replaces this with the first paragraph of set A, the third of set B, and so on. Of course, you can use meaningful shortcurts, like "reclet" for a "received your letter"-paragraph and "recmail" for "received your mail". It's totally up to you.

It could be done in MS Access also. Make a screen where you can select all paragraphs with radioboxes, and then make a query and/or report to compose the right output. I would have to experiment to find a good way to do it, but I'm sure it can be done.


It all depends on the volume, in fact. If you do it yourself once a day and there are 5 sets of paragraphs the best solution will be different from if 10 people have to do it 100 times a day and there are 25 sets to choose from.

Hope this helps.


Kees

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Printing selected paragraphs in MS Word.
Sep 23, 2005 1:27AM PDT

If I understand you right, this is how it can be done: In MS Word, you do not ''put a check'' to select a paragraph. You do it this way - rest the mouse crusor at the beginning of the paragraph, hold down SHIFT, move the crusor to the end of rthe paragraph, release SHIFT. The paragraph will be selected (highlighted in black). At the File menu, select Print-->Selection.

If you want the paragraphs selected at random to be in a new document, then after the selection, press Ctrl+C and then open a new Word Document. Press Ctrl+V to paste the paragraph. Other paragraphs can be added the same way. Save the document normally if you wish, and print as usual.

Another way is to create a one column table with the required numbers of rows, or add rows by resting the mouse crusor inside the last bottom right cell and press the ''Tab'' key. Type each paragraph in an individual cell. To select the cell(i.e. the paragraph) to print, place the mouse crusor at or near the top left outside corner of the cell, nearly touching the side, when the crusor will turn into a small arrow pointing at 2 O' clock, and the whole cell will be selected. Print the selection.