Understanding Word Add-Ins

Templates and wizards are powerful, but if you want to customize your Word environment even more, you should know about add-ins. These extend Word's capabilities, adding new features and custom commands. They have access to the full capabilities of the Windows operating system, and typically run faster than macros.

Many third-party Word add-ins are available. For example, Woody's Office Power Pack (WOPR) from Pinecliffe International (www.wopr.com) adds sophisticated envelope creation, file management, and many other features to Word.

Other add-ins offer specialized capabilities to Word. For example, the EndNote add-in from Thomson ISI ResearchSoft (www.endnote.com) enhances Word with extensive bibliographic reference capabilities.

When you have an add-in, either follow the instructions that come with it or install it the same way you install a global template. Choose Tools, Templates and Add-Ins; click Add. Then, in the Add Templates dialog box, select the add-in you want to load and click OK.

Like global templates, add-ins normally don't load at startup unless you copy them to Word's Startup folder or run a macro that loads them.