Preparing Proposals (Final Part 3) – Using Fields

Microsoft Office Tip: There are many common data elements you reuse in the proposal which are unique to that document. Some are pre-built components of the document or file like page numbering, document title, subject, author, last edited date, etc. Other could be customized like customer name, proposal value, offer expiry date, version number, etc.

Using in-built fields: Example – You want to insert the name of the person who last saved the document (in a multi-user scenario)

    

Position the cursor where you want to insert and follow these steps:

1. Insert Tab -> Text group -> Quick Parts -> Field…
2. The “Field” dialog box will come up.
3. In “Categories” dropdown select “Document Information”, Field name: “DocProperty, Property: “LastSavedBy”. Click “Ok”.
4. Now the name will be inserted.

To visually differentiate fields from general text -> File (or Office button) -> Options -> Advanced -> In the “Show document content” set “Field Shading” dropdown to “When Selected or “Always”. All fields or selected field background will be grey respectively.

Note: Fields are not automatically refreshed. To update a single field, click the field, and then press F9 or right click on the field and select “Update Field”. To update all fields in a document, click Select All on the Edit menu (CTRL-A), and then press F9.

Now you can explore all available fields and decide which are relevant to use in your document. For example, if you are in the Legal profession consider fields – EditTime, PrintDate

Using custom fields:

Create custom field:

1. Select File -> Info -> Properties (Right) -> Advanced Properties from dropdown
2. Select “Custom” tab.
3. Enter field name, type, default/current value.

Here in example, we have created a field called “CustomerName” which will be used throughout the proposal. This can be updated in a single place to update all instances of customer name.

Insert custom field:

1. Place cursor in document where you want to place the field.
2. In Insert Tab, text group select -> Quick Parts -> Field…
3. In the Field dialog box select: Categories=Document Information, Field Names=DocProperty, Property=CustomerName.
4. Click “OK” to insert the field.
5. Do this in any place where you want to insert the CustomerName.

Note: You can create required custom fields and save in template. When you create a new file from this template, go and edit the field values.

Edit custom field values:

1. Go back to Advanced Properties. You will see the custom field names in the “Properties:” section.
2. Click on the field you want to assign new value. In our example “CustomerName”. Current value will show next to “Value:”.
3. Change the value to desired new value. Let’s say we change the customer name to “ABC Limited”.
4. Go back to document editing. Select All (CRTL-A) and press F9 to refresh all fields.

The fields will reflect new value for all instances.

Benefits:

• Fields allow you to enter consistent information across a document.
• Content is refreshed based on the field values (in-built or custom).
• Minimize errors and goofs (e.g. different customer name in 2 places).