Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Embedding Your Phone Number in a Document.

Embedding Your Phone Number in a Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 28, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

Microsoft Word is used quite extensively in corporate environments to create a wide array of documents. It is often desirable to know exactly who created a document, particularly if it has been months since a document was last reviewed. In the document properties Word keeps track of some data that can be used to help identify an author. One piece of data that could be very helpful is the phone number of the document's author. To specify a phone number, follow these steps if you are using Word 2010 or a later version:

  1. Click the File tab of the ribbon and make sure that Info is selected at the left side of the screen.
  2. Click the Properties drop-down list and choose Advanced Properties. Word displays the Properties dialog box for the document.
  3. Make sure the Custom tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Custom tab of the Properties dialog box.

  5. In the list of properties at the top of the dialog box (listed in the Name control), choose Telephone Number.
  6. In the Value box, enter the phone number you want associated with the document.
  7. Click on Add.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Close the Document Information Panel.

If you are using Word 2007 the steps are a bit different:

  1. Click the Office button, then click Prepare, and then Properties. Word displays the Document Information Panel at the top of your document, just below the ribbon.
  2. Use the Document Properties drop-down list (top-left corner of the Document Information Panel) to choose Advanced Properties. Word displays the Properties dialog box for the document.
  3. Make sure the Custom tab is displayed.
  4. In the list of properties at the top of the dialog box (listed in the Name control), choose Telephone Number.
  5. In the Value box, enter the phone number you want associated with the document.
  6. Click on Add.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Close the Document Information Panel.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6830) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Embedding Your Phone Number in a Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Specifying Paper Trays for Specific Pages in a Single Print Job

If your printer has multiple paper trays, you may want to send some pages to one tray and other pages to a different ...

Discover More

Searching for Formatting

When searching for text, Word can pay attention to more than just the characters in the text. It can also pay attention ...

Discover More

Understanding File System Formats

When you format a disk drive, you have the option to specify what file system should be used on that drive. There are ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! Are you ready to harness the full power of Word 2013 to create professional documents? In this comprehensive guide you'll learn the skills and techniques for efficiently building the documents you need for your professional and your personal life. Check out Word 2013 In Depth today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Unable to Edit Document with Embedded Fonts

What are you to do if you embed fonts in a document and then someone else cannot make changes to that document? Chances ...

Discover More

Using Document Properties to Ensure Consistent References

If you need to refer to the same information over and over in a document, you may be interested in using custom document ...

Discover More

Incorrect Last Modified Date on E-mailed Documents

Word maintains, in a document's properties, several dates such as the date the document was created and last accessed. ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 3?

2018-01-29 16:33:39

David Gray

This tip adds the phone number property to the properties maintained by Word for one particular document. If, instead, you want Word to maintain the phone number as a document property on ALL of your documents, I suspect you'll need to take a step back, and add it to the properties stored in NORMAL.dotm. Though I haven't done so with my own Normal template, I have added custom properties to many of my custom templates. For example, the template that generates my professional service invoices stores the name of the printer that I want the Document_New macro to use when it creates a PDF printout of the completed invoice. I first did something similar to store the name of a second logical printer that was configured to print duplex, for printing two-sided lease contracts onto a single sheet of paper.

Another thing to keep in mind about custom document properties is that they become custom fields, available for insertion anywhere in the document that any other field can go, which is pretty much anywhere, period. For example, my business letter template fills the return address block from the stock Author and Company properties, and could as well get the remainder of the return address from custom properties. I've used custom properties in all three main parts of a document - the body, the page header, and the page footer. You can even insert image fields into all three.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.