4 Quick Methods to Auto Update All Repeated or Related Contents in Your Word Document

In this article, we will focus on explaining 4 quick ways to auto update all repeated or related contents in your word document.

If you work with statistics reports quite often, you will find same texts or values appear all the time through a document. And another situation is now and then you will get a value based on previous data. Then here is the problem. When you alter a text or a value in one place, can you automatically update all the same texts or related data in the whole document?

Just read on and you will find out how.

Method 1: Use the Cross-reference

1. First of all, select the text which will show again in your document.
2. Secondly, click “Insert” tab.
3. Then click “Bookmark” in “Links” group.
4. Next you name the bookmark in “Bookmark” dialog box.
5. And click “Add”.
6. Now put your cursor right at the place where the repeated text goes.
7. Then click “Insert” tab again.
8. And this time click “Cross-reference” in “Links” group.
9. Next, in “Cross-reference” dialog box, you first choose “Bookmark” for “Reference type”.
10. Then choose “Bookmark text” for “Insert reference to”.
11. And select the right bookmark name in “For which bookmark” list box.
12. Lastly, click “Insert” button.

Later, when you decide to change contents, you just need to modify on the first text and follow the steps to update. We will discuss the ways to update contents in the latter part of this article.

Method 2: Use Field

1. To begin with, repeat the first 6 steps in method 1.
2. Then, press “Ctrl+ F9” to insert field braces in your document.
3. Next input the bookmark name into between the two braces, such as “A1” here.
4. Finally, press “F9” and you will get the same text.

Method 3: Choose Paste Option

1. First and foremost, select the first text.
2. Then, press “Ctrl+ C”.
3. Next click the upside-down triangle on “Paste” option under “Home” tab.
4. And on the list-menu, choose “Paste Special”.
5. Then in “Paste Special” dialog box, choose “Paste link”.
6. Then select “Formatted Text”.
7. At last, click “OK”.

Method 4: Use Field to Update Related Data

For example, we have a table of one row and three columns as below:

The value in “R1C3” cell should be the result of summing “R1C1” and “R1C2” cells.

1. First step, using the instructions in method 1 to insert bookmarks for values in “R1C1” and “R2C2” cells. Here, we name these bookmarks as “s1” and “s2’.
2. Then lay your cursor at “R1C3” cell.
3. And press “Ctrl+ F9” to get field braces.
4. Now between the two braces, you should enter formula: { ={ s1 }+{ s2 } }

You should get all these braces by pressing “Ctrl+ F9” instead of typing manually.

5. Finally, press “F9” to get the result.

Notice: For both 4 methods, when you need to change the text or data, you should enter the new text or date by putting insertion point inside the original one, and then delete it later.

2 Ways to Update Contents

The first method is to press “Ctrl+ A” to select the whole document, and then press “F9” to update automatically.

The second one is to use VBA codes.

1. Firstly, press “Alt+ F11” to open VBA editor.
2. Then double click “ThisDocument” to open the code editing area if necessary.
3. Next paste the following codes there:

Sub UpdateDate()
       If ActiveDocument.Fields.Count > 0 Then
           ActiveDocument.Fields.Update
           MsgBox ("Successfully updated all fields in this document!")
       Else
           MsgBox ("No field found in this document.")
       End If
End Sub

4. Lastly, click “Run”.

Prepare for Emergencies

Speaking of emergencies in running programs, we will come to software crashes and file corruptions. Certainly, we can take some preventive measures, such as backing up files and running antivirus products regularly. Yet, even backups can fall victim to malicious attacks or wrong operations. And the words processor, Word, which we use every day, is no exception. Therefore, one of the preparing measures you must take is to get hold of a potent corrupt Word recovery tool

Author Introduction:

Vera Chen is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including Excel xlsx data repair and pdf repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com