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

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

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?").

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...

What do you mean by "work."

Does it work when you use the F3 key?

Where are your AutoText entries stored?

Choices are:

• normal.dotm
• the attached template
• a global template

AutoText does work in Word 2010. It isn't the same as it was in Word 2003 or Word 2007. For the pop-up to work the AutoText must be in normal.dotm or the attached template, not a general global template.

Note, you have posted at the tail end of a thread that is more than six months old, responding to a post that is three months old. You haven't given any information about your system or what you have done to let anyone try to help you. If you want to just complain you can do that. If you want help, please either start a new thread or provide information about which version of Word and Windows you are using and what Autotext isn't doing that you expect it to do.

What do I mean by "work"?? I mean exactly that. Sometimes when I type the first four letters of an Autotext entry, a little grey box pops up with the rest of the entry and I can either hit enter or tab and it will insert the text. But sometimes when I type the first four letters, nothing happens. It is completely intermittent. I can be working on the same page on the same document and within the same minute in time it can work and then it can not work. To reiterate, by "work" I mean the suggestion appears so that the entry can be inserted.

The problem is the INTERMITTENCE. If I have things set up correctly in the right template, which I'm sure I have, the autotext entries should be suggested every time, not just most of the time. It makes no sense to me why it works sometimes and why it doesn't work other times - as I said, same document, same time, sometimes even same sentence, it will work (and by that I mean suggest the autotext entry) and then suddenly it won't.

I use Windows 7 and Word 2010 (duh).

I'm sorry I broke your rules for posting. I guess I'll go somewhere else for help!