When working with a Word document or DOCX format, you can do a couple of things prior to import that will improve the look of your document after importing. This includes converting auto-text to plain text and removing unneeded section breaks.
Converting auto text to plain text
Auto text often consist of items such as numbered list, and can be helpful for reasons such as importing legal documents. To convert the auto text, you'll need to use the Visual Basic Editor tool.
- Open the document in Word that you wish to convert.
- To open the Visual Basic Editor tool you have 3 options:
- Option 1: Press ALT+F11 to display the Visual Basic Editor.
Option 2: Go on the Developer tab and select "Visual Basic".
Note: If the developer tab is not available, go to Options > Customize Ribbon > Check Developer box > OK
- Option 3: Find the Visual Basic Editor by searching it into the below search bar
- On the View menu, choose Immediate Window and type the following: ActiveDocument.ConvertNumbersToText and press Enter.
- Close the Immediate Window.
- Save the Word document.
Remove unneeded section breaks
When importing a Word document into Workiva, a section is created in the Workiva document for each Section Break it finds within your Word file. This could result in unneeded section breaks in your imported document.
To prevent the importing from automatically creating unwanted sections, you can remove the section breaks in Word prior to importing:
- In the Word file, go to the Home tab and select Replace.
- Expand the Special drop-down menu and select Section Break.
- For the Replace with field, keep it blank.
- Replace them one-by-one or Replace All.
- Save the Word document.
After converting auto text and removing unneeded section breaks, you can now easily import the Word document into Workiva.