Is there some way to define "variables" in a Word document that can be
changed without editing the document text?

I create a lot of legal documents. Some of them are fairly long and
complicated. They require many revisions and drafts. Something that
happens frequently is that common words need to be changed globally.

For example, appointment orders for a mediator or arbitrator could
mention either "decisions" or "recommendations". There might be dozens
or even hundreds of clauses affected.

I have created a set of document templates with a bunch of
pseudo-variables to handle this in the initial draft. I use the
notation "$varname". The variable "$calls" occurs in various clauses
such as, "The mediator's $calls must be submitted in writing within 30
days...".

When I prepare the initial draft, I do a global replace (Ctrl-h) to
replace all occurrences of "$calls" with either "decisions" or
"recommendations".

That part works perfectly. The problem occurs when the judge decides
that this mediator cannot make "decisions", but only
"recommendations". Now a global replace will not work because there
are instances of the term "decisions" that should not be changed.

What I really want is the pseudo-variable $calls back so I can replace
that.

So, it there some way to leave the variable in the document, but
assign it a value that can be changed later?

It looks like the document variable field might work, but I can't see
how to set the value. The Help seems to suggest that it can only be
done from VBA. Is that correct?

Will the document variable field do what I want?

Is there a way to set it without resorting to VBA code?

If I do have to use VBA, can someone show me a basic outline of what I
need to do? I have written a few simple macros so I sort of under
stand that.

If I set it up using VBA, are the variabes local to each document?
Global variables would be of no use.

I am using Word 2000.

Thanks

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Running Word 2000 SP-3 on Windows 2000