The Quick Part you created is part of a larger category of Microsoft Word tools known as Building Blocks. A Building Block is any type of saved content that is not a document, but rather a portion of a document - and it’s not saved on its own, but in the Word interface. Once saved, you can call upon that Building Block again. In this way you can use very complex design elements in numerous documents without spending ages trying to correctly format them.
We’ve already talked about how to make a Quick Part, which is one type of Building Block, but it’s not the only type. You can apply Building Blocks to Headers and Footers, after which they can be selected and automatically added to one or all of the pages of a document.
For example, let’s say I want to create a header for my business. I type the following.
To all of you document ninjas out there - I didn’t say it was a GOOD header. It’s just a header for example purposes, of course!
As the chief of advertising for Acme Services, I want to save this header so that I can use it in the future. That’s no problem. I just select, click on the Header button in the Insert tab to call the drop-down menu, and then click Save Selection to Header Gallery. Just as with the Quick Part made in the earlier example, my custom header now appears whenever I click on the Header button.
If you think that the process for creating a custom footer is the same, pat yourself on the back. It most certainly is! There are also two other buttons on the Insert tab that provide the same functionality; the Equation button and the Cover Page button.
Of course, as you become familiar with Building Blocks and begin to use them more frequently you may end up needing to rearrange, delete, or change some of the Building Blocks you have available. You can access the Building Blocks Organizer by clicking on Quick Parts and then clicking the Building Blocks Organizer menu selection. Or, if you’d like, you can use the instructions in the Chapter 2 section “Customizing the Ribbon” to add the Building Blocks Organizer as a button to your Insert tab.
The organizer itself is extremely basic, so I’ll explain it quickly. The organizer window consists of a list of Building Blocks on the left and a preview pane on the right. The Edit Properties button will bring up the menu that you used to add the Building Block so you can change the category and so on. As you might expect, the Insert button places the Building Block in your document and the Delete button makes the Building Block vanish from your sight!
