Using variables in MS Word?

[merlin777]

I'm writing a document in MS Word which is to be customised for individuals. I realise that sounds like a job for mail merge but that's not really appropriate in this case. Each document will be customised individually as required and not in a batch.

I wondered if I could put a variable in the place of a name or phone number and then set that variable on the final page so all instances of the variable show that value.

For instance, the document might need to say:

"If you are concerned please contact your therapist, joe bloggs, on 01234 56789."

But I'm wondering if I could put:

"If you are concerned please contact your therapist, variable A, on variable B."

and then set the variables appropriately.

My instinct is to do it in excel which I know well but it's not ideal for text documents and these documents will be customised by people who can use Word but not too familiar with excel.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[merlin777]

this thread was about variables in word but, assuming you meant excel, I'm not sure why you would need them? The cell reference allows you to refer to the contents of a cell in a formula.

If you prefer you can name a cell and use the name in your formulas. It might make your formula clearer to understand but its more steps. Also, it wouldn't update if you copied and pasted your formulas like a cell reference would, it would behave as an absolute reference (like $A$1) rather than a relative one (like A1)