How to Be More Efficient with Quick Parts and Building Blocks in Microsoft Word | Tips & Tricks
If you’re an avid user of Microsoft Word, whether it’s for business or recreation, you may find yourself typing out the same kind of content over and over again. It’s annoying to have to constantly re-open previous documents in order to copy-paste the content you need into new documents. However, there’s a much easier way to go about this! The “quick parts” and “building blocks” features of Microsoft Word don’t see a lot of love, but they can absolutely help you out when you need to repeat a specific block of text over several documents. So how do you use them?
Using Premade Building Blocks
If you want to browse the premade options you have available, you can browse them all by clicking “Insert,” then “Quick Parts,” and then “Building Blocks Organizer.”
You can see a gallery of all the premade parts you can use. They may be all jumbled up, so be sure to sort them by “Gallery” by clicking the category at the top of the list. This then sorts the parts by their type, allowing you to find the one that suits what you want best. For instance, if you’re looking for a great way to start your document, sort them by gallery, find the cover pages, and browse the options there.
In order to put the building block into your document, simply click on the one you’d like and click “Insert.”
The building block will then be placed onto your document, ready to go!
Making Your Own
However, part of the strength of this feature is that you can make your own building blocks if need be. This means if you have a cover letter already designed in Word, you can save it to the list of building blocks and use it whenever you like.
In order to make your own building block, first design how you’d like it to look within the Word document itself. Then, when you’re done, highlight everything you’d like to save, click on “Insert,” then “Quick Parts,” and then “Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery.”
A box will appear where you can name the building block for easy identification as well as placing it within a specific category. Placing it within a specific category also carries over the traits of that category. For instance, something placed in “Header” will be inserted within the header when used. If you’re unsure what category to pick, just select “Quick parts.” This will make it easier to find and use later on.
When you want to use the new building block you’ve just made, simply find it as you would above via the organizer. If you saved it as a quick part, you can find it by simply clicking on “Quick parts,” and then selecting it in the list.
Deleting a Building Block
To delete a building block, simply find it as you would above by using the organizer. Then, once selected, click the “Delete” button to get rid of it.
Beginning with Blocks
The quick parts and building blocks features in Word can make monotonous tasks in Word much easier to perform. Now you know how to use both of them.
Does this make your life a little easier? Let us know below!
Image credit: First Grade Microsoft Word