auto text, why won't it work or only works sporadically ...

I have the same problem as you and I am SO screamingly frustrated. AutoText works perhaps 75% of the time and I can't figure out what I'm doing differently to make it either work or not. I am a legal transcriber and it's adding hours to my work time. Worst thing is I never know when it will work or when it won't. I've been working on one single document today and sometimes the AutoText entries pop up and sometimes they don't. It's driving me NUTS. I just wanted to let you know that I have the same issue and offer some compassion instead of unhelpful suggestions. I consider myself an Office expert and have done since the late 1990s. Best of luck! Hopefully Microsoft will finally admit there is a bug and get on with fixing it. I'll keep dreaming, I guess...

Well, the AutoText feature has been redesigned and expanded into a more complex feature, called Building Blocks, and AutoComple suggestions have been removed (in Word 2007) and then reintroduced (in Word 2010), which explains why issues may occur.

Note that AutoComplete only works if it can uniquely identify the entry whose name you are starting to type. Naturally, with a lot more entries to choose from, this is a more difficult task in Word 2010 than it used to be in Word 97-2003. Also, remember the limitations: entries must be in Normal.dotm or in the template attached to the current document for AutoComplete to work.

Also, as Charles stated, you are not communicating directly with Microsoft in these forums, unless a person has the "Microsoft employee" title (in the Help section, see "Who's who in the forums?").

No one reading your comments here can fix anything at Microsoft. We are your fellow users.

Neither capitalization nor numeric characters were ever a hindrance to the auto-text function in pre-2007 MS Word versions. Please do not dismiss the importance of this function by conjuring random factors that allegedly prevent it from working properly.

The fact of the matter is that there was NEVER an issue with auto-text functionality in pre-2007 MS Word versions, so why should there be one now? It is a glitch & it needs to be fixed, without question.

I have experienced this glitch often & consequently have tested various solutions to no avail. Many of which were proposed in this message thread. I have also tested the glitch to determine any form of a pattern. Bottom line, there isn’t one.

I thought it may perhaps be due to an older .doc version or because I was typing within a table. NOPE! I’ve tested the same auto-text entry in several .docs which were open simultaneously. The same auto-text entry completed in some forms & not others as well as within some tables & not others. I’ve even experienced this failure with titles of months, WHICH ARE PROGRAMMED INTO THE SOFTWARE BY DEFAULT! Obviously, that debunks the folder theory.

This is a problem that isn’t going to go away simply by ensuring that you save your auto-text entries into a specific folder or exclude capital letters or numbers. It was dubbed auto-text for a reason; because it is supposed to be automatic. No hoops, no standing on one foot, no particulars. Just set it & forget it. PLEASE FIX THIS FOR THE SAKE OF EVERY CLERICAL PERSON’S EFFICIENCY!

Following Graham's test results, did you make sure that your AutoText / Building Block names do not contain numeric characters?