Brand new to Word 2007 is the Building Blocks feature. Essentially, a building block is a set of predefined saved items within a document. Common uses of these preset items include bits and pieces of text and graphics that have been designed to be used in multiple documents. Company privacy statements or logo and address lines are both examples of how a Word 2007 user can store information for future use.
These predefined items are organized into Building Block galleries. In Word 2007, the default Building Block galleries are:
- AutoText
- Bibliographies
- Cover Pages
- Equations
- Footers
- Headers
- Page Numbers
- Table of Contents
- Tables
- Text Boxes
- Watermarks
Through the multiple Ribbon tabs (located at the top of the document page), you can access many of these predefined Building Blocks. For instance, you can find Bibliographies and Table of Contents on the References tab while Cover Pages, Equations, Footers, Headers, Page Numbers, Tables, and Text Boxes can all be found on the Insert tab. Watermarks are located on the Page Layout tab.
In fact, the only gallery not displayed on the Ribbon is AutoText. But, AutoText is still an available Word 2007 feature -- you just have to dig a little to find it. To access AutoText, you'll first want to add the AutoText command to the Quick Access toolbar (located above the Ribbon in the Word 2007 Title bar).
To add the AutoText command to the Quick Access toolbar, follow these steps:
- Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button (located at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar with a small downward pointing arrow)
- Choose More Commands
- In the list under Choose Commands From, click All Commands
- Select AutoText
- Select AutoText, and then click Add
The AutoText command displays on the Quick Access toolbar. Here, you can create new AutoText entries using the Save Selection To AutoText Gallery option at the bottom of the AutoText menu and insert saved entries into your Word document.