Word Formatting, Editing and Content Insertion Tools
In solving client problems we have developed a great many tools and utilities over the last nineteen years.
Some of these utilities are quick and simple and some long and complex. They all assist by making content insertion and formatting a simple single-click job. We have turned many of these tools into modules that we can quickly adapt for each client situation.
We deliver the tools in global addin template which shows up in Word as a custom ribbon from which users can call the tools for any document, or if required from a specific set of documents.
A detailed User Guide is provided which describes the use of each tool.
Typically the custom ribbon may look as follows:
Click on thumbnails below to view larger screenshot in pop-up window.
| Title | Description | Thumbnail |
| Data entry front end dialog |
Each template such as Letter, Report etc has a front-end
data-entry dialog which users type into and then the data is
used to populate the document. Features include:
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| Apply individual styles | Menu drop-downs with required styles. This makes it easy for the user to apply styles from a prescribed list. |
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| Paste text from other documents |
Pasting text from other documents leads to corruption as the potentially alien styles and formatting get brought into the document. This tool intercepts the paste command and formats
the incoming text to remove all the things that may corrupt the
target document's style and layout.
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| Insert custom formatted table | Inserts table of required number of cells with numbered caption and footer all in the company table text and border style. |
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| Insert/Paste Excel Chart |
Inserts Excel chart (or any graphic) such that:
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| Insert Excel data as formatted table |
Inserts table data from Excel such that:
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| Insert Portrait/Landscape page | inserts a P/L page and sets the headers and footers accordingly. Can have landscape or portrait headers on the landscape page |
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| Insert Watermark | Adds (or removes) a custom watermark to a document |
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| Insert Appendix |
Inserts appendix in required location in required orientation. |
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| Update TOC |
Updates Table of Contents and allows the specification of the number of heading levels included in the TOC |
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| Signature inserter |
The dialog is displayed showing all the User's signature
images. When the user selects one a tag is written into the
document and when printed the tag is replaced by the correct
image. Signature images are not stored in the document and users
can only print their own images. |
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| Label Printer | With a letter open in Word the user presses the Label Printer button and the recipient name and address is read from the letter and displayed in the next available label position on the dialog. The ser can print this and the tool remembers the next available position for next use. |
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| Insert frame to hold charts | The frame can be set for the required layout options. |
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| Insert margin text | Inserts text in the margin in the correct position. This text then stays in that position in relation to the source paragraph |
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| Symbols | Dialog to enable easy insertion of symbols, logos and so on |
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| Insert Section | Ability to insert new sections into the document (or slides into a ppt presentation) |
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| Insert Caption | using required custom style and numbering | |
| Cross reference | Inserts cross reference - maybe just displays Word own cross-reference dialogs | |
| Apply Colours | Drop down buttons to apply custom colours to text. |
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| Update fields | Updates all fields such as page numbers, references and TOC | |
| Help button | Displays the template User Guide or the help web page in the web browser | |
| About button |
Displays version number, contact details and some diagnostic information |
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| Fix paragraph numbering/ refresh styles |
Styles are checked and refreshed. Numbering is re-applied which results in most numbering problems being fixed. |
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| Restart paragraph numbering | Lists can be restarted or re-linked | |
| Check Document |
This tool performs a sanity check on the document to check things like:
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| Insert Calendar | Insert calendar and mark dates
within it)
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| PDF conversion | This tool processes the document, adding and removing graphics, removing other formatting features, as required, and then converts the document to Adobe PDF calling Adobe Acrobat with a custom set of options. | |
| HTML pre-processing | This tool processes the document, adding graphics, removing other formatting features, as required, and then converts the document to HTML format | |
| Select paper trays at print time | This print tool allows the user to select a printer and then the required trays in one dialog. |
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| Template Installer |
A self installing exe that the user runs to install Templates and support files in correct locations. This exe can be emailed to the users. Also a custom installer can be provided based on the industry standard InstallShield |
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| Metadata editor | Allows easy access into the active document properties. Properties can be copied from another open document and updated and deleted |
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1.1 Tools that insert standard content
| Title | Description | Thumbnail |
| Insert Autotext | Autotext is a very good way of storing pieces of formatted content inside a template. The required piece can be selected and inserted in the document |
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| AutoDoc |
Assembles documents from standard paragraphs. |
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| Content Library |
Allows easy insertion of formatted text content held in databases.£59 per user licence |
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| Insert content held in other documents |
A library of documents is established in a suitable directory structure such as Content\Case studies …This tool then interacts with this library of documents making it easy to insert the contents of these documents into the active document. |
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| DocuFill |
DocuFill displays a dialog of all the variable text in a document ready for the user to type in replacement text for the variables. DocuFill then infills this text into the document. To markup a document for DocuFill all the administrator has to
do to mark a variable is put the variable in square brackets
e.g. [Start Date]. Then 'Start date' will appear as a prompt in
the DocuFill dialog. |
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| DocuFillDB | as Docufill above but data comes from a database. $69 per licence. |
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