The second reason is, in all that thumbnail confusion, you might select the wrong one and not catch it. At some point, finding the exact thumbnail among the dozen or more items you have will slow you down. Once you decide you like this feature, you will add more.
In our simple example, the address thumbnail is at the top of the gallery. That’s only a couple of clicks, so why create a shortcut at all? To insert the address, click Quick Parts in the Text group and choose the address item from the gallery, as shown in Figure C. For now, retain the default settings ( Figure B). For instance, you might save different addresses to different templates. The other settings depend on your situation. When applying this to your own work, choose meaningful and short names. In the resulting dialog, Word will assign the first line in the selection as the item’s name.Choose Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.Click the Insert tab and then click Quick Parts in the Text group.Select all three lines of the address and continue as follows: First, enter the address and add a bit of formatting-make the company name bold, as shown in Figure A. Let’s use CBSi’s address to illustrate how to add a block. If you already know how to create a block, you can probably skip this section, but you will need one in the next section. How to add blocks of reusable content to Quick Parts in Word Custom shortcuts aren’t supported by the browser edition. There’s no demonstration file because you won’t need one. I’m using Microsoft 365, but you can use older versions. LEARN MORE: Microsoft 365 Consumer pricing and features
TechRepublic and the author were not compensated for this independent review. This feature is part of the larger Building Blocks feature, so throughout this article, I will use the term block.ĭisclosure: TechRepublic may earn a commission from some of the products featured on this page. In this article, I’ll show you how to assign a keyboard shortcut to a Quick Parts item. Assign shortcuts when you use an item often or if you use several frequently. Manually inserting a Quick Parts item, or block, via the interface is easy and quick but using a shortcut keystroke is sometimes easier. If you’re not familiar with this feature, it lets you save reusable content-text, graphics, and formatting-so that you can insert these pieces into documents, saving a lot of time and eliminating typos. In the article How to add an automated signature to a Microsoft Word document, I showed you how to use Quick Parts in Word to insert a graphic of your signature. Windows 10 Extended Security Updates Promised for Small Businesses and Home Users Windows 11 Update Brings New Tricks to Microsoft Copilotġ0 Best Project Management Software for Windows in 2024 Image: 12963734, Getty Images/iStockphoto Must-read Windows coverage If you have several pre-defined blocks of content in Microsoft Word, you can avoid the busy Quick Parts gallery by assigning keyboard shortcuts.