Word's Quick Parts are snippets you save once (a paragraph, the signature, the letterhead) and insert again from Insert, Quick Parts. The most used is AutoText: you select the text, press Alt+F3, give it a name and bring it back by typing its first letters and Enter.
What Word's Quick Parts are and what they are for
Quick Parts are blocks of reusable content that Word keeps in a gallery so you can insert them wherever the cursor is. Microsoft also calls them building blocks, and they save you from typing again what you write the same way over and over: a sentence, a paragraph with its formatting, a table or a letterhead with an image.
They open from the Insert tab, Text group, Quick Parts button. That menu brings together four different tools that are worth not mixing up:
| Menu option | What it inserts | Example in a law firm |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Parts gallery | The blocks you save yourself, visible as soon as you open the menu | The paragraph with the firm's details |
| AutoText | Text and graphics saved in their own gallery | The signature with the logo |
| Document Property | An item from the file's properties, such as the title or the company | The firm's name in the footer |
| Field | Information Word can update, such as the date or the page number | The page numbering of a report |
The same menu has the Building Blocks Organizer, with all the available blocks (yours and the ones Word comes with) so you can view, insert, edit or delete them. Properties such as Title, Author or Company are filled in under File, Info, Properties, Advanced Properties.
There is a third route that gets confused with these: AutoCorrect. It swaps a few letters for a text of up to 255 characters as you type (you type «ffirm», press the space bar and the firm's name appears) and it works in all Office programs. You set it up in AutoCorrect Options, under File, Options. For a single line it is enough; for large passages, AutoText.
How to create a Quick Part or AutoText in Word
To create a Quick Part you select the text, open Quick Parts and choose to save the selection to the gallery.
- Write the block once, with its final formatting, and select it. If you want it to keep the indentation, alignment and line spacing, include the paragraph mark (¶) in the selection. To see it, click Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.
- Go to Insert, Quick Parts and choose Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. If you prefer it as AutoText, the path is Insert, Quick Parts, AutoText, Save Selection to AutoText Gallery, or simply the shortcut Alt+F3.
- In the Create New Building Block box, type a unique name and a description. According to Microsoft, almost all the default values will do, and those two details make the block easier to find.
- Click OK.
The six fields of the Create New Building Block box
Microsoft details them in its Outlook help, which uses the same box with the same name:
- Name: the one you will search for and, with AutoText, the one you type to insert it.
- Gallery: where the block will appear (Quick Parts or AutoText, for example).
- Category: General or another one you create, useful for grouping the firm's blocks.
- Description: a line to remind you what it is for.
- Save in: the template where the block is kept; it decides who else will be able to use it.
- Options: insert only the content, insert it in its own paragraph even if the cursor is in the middle of one, or on its own page.
How to insert a Quick Part and how to change it
To insert a Quick Part you put the cursor where you want it and choose it under Insert, Quick Parts.
The gallery blocks appear when you open the menu; the AutoText ones, under Insert, Quick Parts, AutoText. With the keyboard you don't need the menu: according to Microsoft's table of shortcuts, you type the first letters of the AutoText name and press Enter when Word shows the suggestion. That is why short names that are different from each other pay off.
If you don't remember what you called a block, open the Building Blocks Organizer from the same menu, click the Name column to sort them, choose the block and click Insert.
Changing, renaming or deleting a block
You change the content of a block by replacing it: you insert it, make the changes, select the revised text and save it again with the same name, the same category and the same gallery. Word asks whether you want to redefine the entry and you answer Yes. To rename or delete it, in the Organizer you choose the block and click Edit Properties or Delete.
What is already inserted does not change: the copies placed as normal text don't know you have redefined the block, and if you delete it its content may stay in the documents. For an item that may change, such as the firm's address, Microsoft suggests inserting the AutoText as a field (Insert, Quick Parts, Field, AutoText and the entry). After redefining it, you select the field and press F9 to update it.
What to save in a law firm: the fixed parts in blocks, the variable parts dictated
In a law firm it pays to save as a Quick Part everything that repeats identically in every brief, email or contract.
The practical rule is to split each document into two layers: the fixed one, which does not depend on the matter, goes into blocks; the variable one (names, dates, facts, amounts) is typed or dictated each time. Some example formats, with the name you would give each block in quotation marks:
- Firm details («firm-details»): name, address, phone and email, in a paragraph with the letterhead formatting.
- Signature («firm-signature»): the lawyer's name, bar membership number and, if you use it, the logo.
- Email closing («firm-closing»): «I remain at your disposal for any questions. Kind regards,» and the short signature below.
- Internal memo header («firm-memo»): a two-column table with Matter, Client, Date and Person responsible, and the cells on the right left empty.
- The fixed part of the appearance clause (the «comparecencia» that opens a Spanish brief) with your bar membership details, and the standard clauses the firm already has drafted and reviewed.
With the blocks saved, the document is put together in two moves: you insert the fixed parts and dictate what changes, which is where you win the time back (the numbers are in how much time you save by dictating instead of typing, and the method in how to dictate a legal brief). To try it with Word's own Dictate button, the steps are in the guide to dictating in Word.
With ablalo the variable part is dictated in Spanish in the same document: you press a shortcut, speak and the text appears where the cursor is, already punctuated. There is one piece that is better not saved as AutoText, articles of law, because the block does not find out about amendments: when you dictate «insertar artículo 1902 del Código Civil» (insert article 1902 of the Civil Code), ablalo pastes the current text taken from the consolidated text in the BOE, the Spanish Official State Gazette (it covers 50 laws). And the modes by document type (brief, email to the client, case note, internal message) give each piece its tone and format.
Where Quick Parts are saved and how to share them
Quick Parts are saved inside a Word template, the one you choose in the Save in field.
According to Microsoft's developer documentation, building blocks live in templates, and the ones Word comes with, in one called Building Blocks.dotx. The other one that matters is Normal.dotm, the template Word opens on start-up, with your styles and customisations (on Windows, in C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates). Two consequences follow from this:
- Your blocks are on your computer. If you saved them in Normal.dotm and that file is renamed, damaged or moved, Word creates a new one without your customisations. Copy that folder from time to time.
- To share them you need a template of your own. Don't send your Normal.dotm: it carries your styles and settings, and whoever uses it instead of theirs loses their own.
For the whole firm to have the same blocks:
- Create a firm template: a document with the house formatting, saved with File, Save As and the type Word Template.
- With that template open, save each block choosing it in Save in. It has to be open to appear in the list. Use the same category for all the firm's blocks.
- Save the template and hand it out. According to the Outlook help, whoever receives it saves it in their building blocks folder and can use them; in Word, documents created from it (File, New, Personal) have its blocks at hand.
Quick Parts in Word for Mac, on the web and in Outlook
Microsoft's help on Quick Parts refers to Word for Windows; on a Mac and on the web it changes.
- Word for the web. Microsoft says AutoText is not available and that AutoCorrect in the web version does not support text replacement entries. The way out is Open in Word, which takes the document to the desktop app.
- Word for Mac. The Quick Parts page only mentions Windows versions. The keyboard shortcuts page lists, for the Mac, Option+F3 to create an AutoText entry. With fields, Microsoft warns that on the Mac some can be viewed or updated, but fully inserting and editing them may require Word for Windows.
- Outlook. Quick Parts are also in classic Outlook, in the new Outlook and in Outlook on the web, for the body of emails. In the new Outlook they are managed under Settings, Mail, Quick Parts, and they are per account. If you also want to dictate those emails, we explain it in how to dictate in Outlook.
When Quick Parts don't pay off
Quick Parts don't pay off for text that changes with every matter or for pieces you rarely use.
- Something that comes up once a month is just as quick to copy from an earlier document. A block pays off when the piece appears every day.
- A block with a mistake repeats it in every document. Before saving it, go over it calmly: «n.º», citations of articles, capital letters. The most common style questions are in legal writing mistakes according to the Libro de estilo de la Justicia (the Spanish judiciary's style guide).
- Anything that depends on a law goes out of date. An article of law or a statutory reference saved as a block does not change by itself when the law changes.
- Dates as fields. The Date field shows the current date, so inside a block it may not match the document's date when it updates. To fix it, select the field and press Ctrl+Shift+F9: Microsoft calls this unlinking, and the field becomes normal text.
- They don't fill anything in for you. A block is fixed text. If what you need is for the brief to put itself together with the data from the case file, that is custom automation, which is what NAXIA Legal does.
In short
Word's Quick Parts save you from typing again what repeats in every document: the firm's details, signature, closings, headers. You create them by selecting the text and pressing Alt+F3 (AutoText) or from Insert, Quick Parts, and you insert them from the same menu or with the first letters of the AutoText and Enter. They live in a template; to share them you hand out a firm template, never Normal.dotm. The fixed parts go into blocks and what changes with each matter is dictated.
Sources: Microsoft, Use Quick Parts and AutoText in Word and Outlook, Quick Parts, Create reusable text snippets, Keyboard shortcuts in Word, AutoText field, Date field, View or change the properties for an Office file, Change the Normal template (Normal.dotm), Create a template and Create reusable text blocks for email messages; Microsoft Learn, BuildingBlock object (Word), BuildingBlock Object, Office 2010 documentation and End of support for Office 2016 for Mac and Office 2010. Checked on 22 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What are Quick Parts in Word for?
They are for saving text, tables or images you repeat and inserting them again where the cursor is without typing them. In a law firm, the usual thing is to save the firm's details, the signature, closing phrases and the headers of memos or letters.
What is the difference between Quick Parts and AutoText?
Both are building blocks and are saved in a template. AutoText is a type of building block with its own gallery, meant for long passages of text and graphics, which can also be inserted by typing the first letters of its name and pressing Enter. AutoCorrect is something else: it replaces an abbreviation with a text of up to 255 characters in all Office programs.
What is the keyboard shortcut to create AutoText in Word?
In Word for Windows, select the text and press Alt+F3; in Word for Mac, Option+F3. To insert it later, type the first letters of the name and press Enter when Word shows the suggestion.
Where are Word Quick Parts saved?
In a Word template: the one you choose in the Save in field when you create them, such as Normal.dotm or a template of your own. To have them on another computer or share them with the firm, save them in a firm template and hand out that file, not your Normal.dotm.
Are there Quick Parts in Word 2010?
Yes: building blocks have existed since Word 2007, according to Microsoft's developer documentation. But Office 2010 reached the end of support on 13 October 2020 and Microsoft's current help describes Word 2016 and later, so in Word 2010 some names or menus may differ.
Why can't I find AutoText in Word for the web?
Because Word for the web does not have AutoText, according to Microsoft. To use it, click Open in Word and work on the document in the desktop app.