6 Powerful Ways to Automate Your Word Documents

We spend countless hours crafting proposals, reports, and contracts, on Word. Sometimes you have to perform repetitive tasks like filling in boilerplate text, inserting customer names and addresses, or applying consistent formatting.

A common strategy to deal with mundane work is to leverage a set of go-to templates for frequently used documents. However, even with templates, there is still a lot of manual repetitive, time-consuming work – customizing headings, inserting customer information, applying consistent formatting, and routing documents for approvals.

This is where automation comes into play! 

In this article, we'll explore 6 powerful ways to automate these repetitive tasks directly within Microsoft Word. We'll explore them all from simple find-and-replace techniques to more advanced automations like macros.

1. Use Find and Replace shortcut tools

The Find and Replace tool is a go-to shortcut to automate basic text substitutions and update document formatting.

• What it is: Find and Replace allows you to make content substitutions instead of manually locating and retyping/reformatting each instance of text. You can run Find and Replace across the current document or even search through and replace text in multiple open documents simultaneously. It is straightforward and doesn’t require any macros or add-ins.
• Best use cases‍
  
  • Updating names/labels consistently across documents
  • Applying uniform formatting to all headings
  • Replacing outdated product/company references

• Skill level: No coding or technical expertise required 

• How to access it: You can open the basic Find menu by pressing Ctrl+F. Or look to the extreme right of the bar beneath all the tabs and you’ll see three options in a vertical list: "Find," "Replace," and "Select” next to Styles.

• Limitations
  
  • Text-based replacements only, no integration with data sources
  • The manual effort required to review/accept replacements
  • No way to automate conditional logic
  ‍
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Web, Mobile

2. Quick Parts and Auto Text

While Find and Replace allows basic text substitutions, Quick Parts, and Auto Text take it a step further by enabling reuse of frequently typed text or rich formatting across documents. The advantage of using Quick Part and Auto text is you can save time and maintain consistency across your documents. 

They are similar in the purpose they solve, but how you access them is crucial.

• What it is: Quick Parts and Auto Text are built-in tools in Word that allow you to store and insert reusable pieces of content like boilerplate text, formatted data like addresses, or even entire document building blocks.
  Quick Parts stores content as re-usable "building blocks" that you can insert into documents via the Quick Parts gallery. These snippets of predefined content are not limited to text only - they can include images, document properties, fields, tables, graphics, and more.
  Auto Text entries work similarly but are text-only and inserted via a custom keyboard shortcut.

• How to access it: You can add text or an image to Quick Parts by selecting the text, going to the Insert tab, and clicking Quick Parts in the Text group. Then, choose "Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery".

• Best use casesome text
  • Inserting standard boilerplate clauses, disclaimers, and instructions across documents
  • Adding properly formatted addresses, logos, signatures
  • Building templates from reusable content chunks

• Skill level: No coding

• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Web

• Limitations:some text
  • Content is static once inserted.
  • Management of shared auto-text entries requires synchronization
  • Can become unwieldy with large auto-text/quick parts library
  • Quick parts are only saved locally and need to manually transfer them between computers
  • Sharing/accessing a centralized Quick Parts library is cumbersome

3. Macros

Macros enable you to record and playback a series of commands and keystrokes that can be used to automate repetitive tasks.

• What it is: Using Macros, you can record a set of steps like formatting changes, data insertions, menu selections, and more, and then replay that recorded "macro" with just a single click or keyboard shortcut. Macros allow you to automate repetitive tasks and multi-step workflows instead of manually performing the same series of actions repeatedly.

• How to access it

To create a new macro, go to View > Macros > Record Macro. Perform the steps you want to record, then stop the recording. You can then run the macro by going to View > Macros.

• Best use cases‍
  • Automate formatting changes across sections of a document
  • Perform the same set of actions across multiple documents
  • Set up keyboard shortcuts for frequent, multi-step workflows

• Skill level: Basic coding - No direct programming, but understanding macro security, storage, etc

• Platforms: Windows, Mac

• Limitationssome text
  • Macros are document/application specific - hard to share or reuse
  • You cannot edit a recorded macro's code directly in Word
  • Macro viruses can pose a security risk if macros from untrusted third-party sources are executed without proper vetting and security checks.Macro viruses become a security concern when users upload third-party macros or macros from untrusted sources
  • Debugging or updating macros can be difficult

4. Content Controls

While Macros allow you to automate commands, Content Controls allow you to designate areas within Word documents to allow or restrict user edits.

• What it is: Content Controls are placeholders you can add to Word documents to specify what type of content should go in that region, like plain text, a date, a checkbox, etc. You define the rules on what users can enter or do within those controls.
  The content control regions can be mapped to data sources like a database or XML file. This allows you to programmatically populate those areas with external data or update multiple documents at once.

• How to access it: Go to the Developer tab > Controls group and select the type of content control you want to insert. You can map data sources through the Content Control Properties.

• Best use cases
  
  • Create document templates with areas locked for text only
  • If you are working on a template, Word can automatically populate the Content Control regions with data from the external data source
  • Build forms with different fields like checkboxes, date pickers, drop-downs, etc, and make it easy for users to fill in data. For example, suppose you create an employee onboarding form in Word and have a Date of Birth field. You can insert a Date Picker Content Control, which will provide a user-friendly calendar interface for selecting the date instead of just leaving blank spaces for users to type or write in these fields

• Skill level: Basic coding - Mapping data sources requires some technical knowledge

• Platforms: Windows, Mac

• Limitations
  
  • The Developer tab for accessing controls is hidden by default
  • Limited control types like checkboxes, and text boxes - no custom widgets
  • Not optimized for complex structured data sources
  • Data mapping can become convoluted for advanced scenarios

5. Use VBA

With VBA, you can write code to program advanced document behavior and functionality.

• What it is: VBA is a programming language and development environment that allows you to extend the built-in features of Word and other Microsoft Office applications. With VBA, you can write custom scripts and Macros to automate any task or workflow within Word documents.
• VBA provides an extensive library of objects, properties, and methods that let you programmatically control document content, formatting, printing, emailing, and more through code.
• How to access it: Go to the Developer tab > Visual Basic to open the VBA editor window. You can create new macros, modules, and user forms to write VBA code.
• Best use cases:
  
  • Generating documents and reports directly from data sources
  • Automating complex, multi-step batch processing of documents
  • Building custom user experiences and document-based apps

• Skill level: Advanced Coding - Extensive programming knowledge required
• Platforms: Windows
• Limitations:
  
  • Steep learning curve to master VBA and Word's object model
  • Code must be manually updated when Office versions change
  • Potential security risks from malicious VBA code
  • Lack of source control can make team development difficult

6. Add-ins

While the built-in Word features provide various automation capabilities, Add-ins allow you to extend Word's functionality even further by installing third-party apps and tools or building your custom solutions.

• What it is: Add-Ins are supplemental applications that integrate into Word to provide additional features, commands, and even full-fledged vertical solutions tailored to specific needs like document management, PDF editing, OCR, e-signatures, and more.Microsoft offers an Office Store with curated Add-Ins, but you can also create your custom Add-Ins using development tools like Visual Studio. Popular off-the-shelf options include Adobe Acrobat, Grammarly, Translator, DocuSign, and more.

• How to access it: Go to Insert > Add-Ins (or Get Add-Ins) to access the Office Add-In store and browse or search for available Add-Ins. Custom Add-Ins can be deployed internally via a shared network.

• Best use cases:
  
  • Industry/domain-specific document generation and automation
  • Integrating Word with enterprise document management systems
  • Advanced PDF editing, conversion, and e-signature capabilities
  • Enhancing collaboration with co-authoring, change tracking toolsBuilding proprietary organizational workflow apps

• Skill Level: Varies - Some Add-Ins are code-free and mostly plug-and-play. Whereas in few cases you need to code.
• Platforms: Windows, Mac, Web (And mobile for certain Add-Ins)
• Limitations:
  
  • Extended functionality depends on third-party Add-In quality
  • Compatibility issues may arise with Office/Add-In updates
  • Add-In overhead can impact Word's performance
  • Cost for premium Add-Ins from vendors
  • Developing custom Add-Ins requires technical expertise

Document Automation Software vs Microsoft Word

While Microsoft Word offers built-in automation features, there are several challenges and limitations you’ll encounter when trying to implement comprehensive document automation using only Word's capabilities.

Here are a few common challenges one might encounter:

• Lack of integration with business systems and data sources outside of the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Limited automation capabilities for non-technical users due to complex macros and coding requirements.
• Mapping data from external sources into Word templates requires technical VBA coding. There are no user-friendly data mapping tools.
• Insufficient built-in capabilities for advanced multi-step approval workflows.
• Scalability challenges as document needs increase in complexity, requiring significant IT resources.

If you face one or more of these Word automation challenges, it becomes difficult to automate documents smoothly and save time. This is where a dedicated document automation solution like Docupilot can make a major difference. They provide a more efficient and accessible solution to document automation challenges, offering features and functionalities beyond what Word can provide. To illustrate the differences, let's compare Microsoft Word's approach to a document automation solution.

Docupilot: The leading document automation platform

Docupilot is a powerful yet simple-to-use document generation software catering to teams of all sizes. This intuitive document automation platform allows teams to visually create and manage the entire document lifecycle from start to finish.

 Its standout features include:

• A drag-and-drop custom template builder that enables users to build dynamic templates.
• Automated document delivery via email or upload to cloud storage, with the ability to route documents for e-signatures via native DocuSign integration.
• Generate multiple documents at scale by pulling data from various data sources.
• Connects to over 70 popular business apps through pre-built integrations and the Zapier connector.

Are you tired of the limitations and repetitive nature of creating documents in Microsoft Word? Explore Docupilot as a solution to enhance your document workflows. Sign up for our 30-day free trial and experience the magic of effortless document creation on Docupilot