I have a 15 page word document that is my template for creating contracts.
There are about 150 different paragraphs that I may or may not use to compile
any given contract.

My plan is to use excel to number each paragraph, and use a lookup function
to choose the 40 paragraphs that I will need for any given individual
document. Word and Publisher do not have the automation that I am trying to
achieve. I was hopeful about building blocks in word, but they don't work
with the amount of text I am sifting through.

I feel as if I may be entering the abyss trying to do this. Any suggestions
or tips about how to configure this? Are there other programs that I should
be considering besides what I have tried?

thank you much

Your question is going to get a better answer in the Word newsgroup than
here, because there are several ways to skin the cat in Word - autotext,
inserting text from files, macros that read the text from XML files & write
to the 'new' document, etc.

"AJB" wrote:

I have a 15 page word document that is my template for creating contracts.
There are about 150 different paragraphs that I may or may not use to compile
any given contract.

My plan is to use excel to number each paragraph, and use a lookup function
to choose the 40 paragraphs that I will need for any given individual
document. Word and Publisher do not have the automation that I am trying to
achieve. I was hopeful about building blocks in word, but they don't work
with the amount of text I am sifting through.

I feel as if I may be entering the abyss trying to do this. Any suggestions
or tips about how to configure this? Are there other programs that I should
be considering besides what I have tried?

thank you much

I was hoping there was an excel based soluation, because my excel skill in
much more considerable than other programs.

"Duke Carey" wrote:

Your question is going to get a better answer in the Word newsgroup than
here, because there are several ways to skin the cat in Word - autotext,
inserting text from files, macros that read the text from XML files & write
to the 'new' document, etc.

"AJB" wrote:

I have a 15 page word document that is my template for creating contracts.
There are about 150 different paragraphs that I may or may not use to compile
any given contract.

My plan is to use excel to number each paragraph, and use a lookup function
to choose the 40 paragraphs that I will need for any given individual
document. Word and Publisher do not have the automation that I am trying to
achieve. I was hopeful about building blocks in word, but they don't work
with the amount of text I am sifting through.

I feel as if I may be entering the abyss trying to do this. Any suggestions
or tips about how to configure this? Are there other programs that I should
be considering besides what I have tried?

thank you much

Word DOES use excel as a mail merge database. That would be your best bet.
With the mailmerge, there are even some portions where you can use IF THEN
ELSE functions. Admittedly, a lot of the work is still done in word, but it
would still provide the flexibility you need in excel.
--
** John C **

"AJB" wrote:

I was hoping there was an excel based soluation, because my excel skill in
much more considerable than other programs.

"Duke Carey" wrote:

Your question is going to get a better answer in the Word newsgroup than
here, because there are several ways to skin the cat in Word - autotext,
inserting text from files, macros that read the text from XML files & write
to the 'new' document, etc.

"AJB" wrote:

I have a 15 page word document that is my template for creating contracts.
There are about 150 different paragraphs that I may or may not use to compile
any given contract.

My plan is to use excel to number each paragraph, and use a lookup function
to choose the 40 paragraphs that I will need for any given individual
document. Word and Publisher do not have the automation that I am trying to
achieve. I was hopeful about building blocks in word, but they don't work
with the amount of text I am sifting through.

I feel as if I may be entering the abyss trying to do this. Any suggestions
or tips about how to configure this? Are there other programs that I should
be considering besides what I have tried?

thank you much