Now that you’ve downloaded and installed the Autotext Writing Assistant template, you can learn how to use it with your student’s paper.  In order to use the template, you must change the Security setting in your Word program.  Go to the Tools column, Choose "Macro" and then Security.  Select the Low security setting.  This allows the autotext template to work in your Word processor.  You must also be able to view the autotext toolbar.  Click the OK button. 

Go to the View column, go down to the Toolbars and over to the Autotext and highlight it.

Next, go to the Tools column and select Templates and add-ins.  Click on the add button.  Then, choose the “autotext grammar” template and highlight it.  Put a check-mark in the empty box.  Click the OK button.

This will bring you back to the main Word interface screen.  Now, we must “activate” the template to use it.  Go to the Tools column again, and be certain there's a check mark in the box next to the Autotextgrammar.dot template.  Click on the OK button.

This will now show you two buttons on the autotext toolbar:  1. Module1.InsertATNoFormat and 2.  Project.Module2.GetHTTP  Module number one must be activated first.  I will show you how to use Module number two in the second tutorial.  For now, click on the first module on the left, and go down to the “look in” selection near the bottom and choose “autotextgrammar.dot (global template)”.  This will make the template “active” within the student paper you are presently evaluating.

Now the “fun stuff” begins.  Click on the Project.Module1.InsertATNoFormat button and scroll through the variety of autotext selections.  These grammar and formatting rules were pre-selected and screened by me to enable you to instantly connect the student with an online grammar, research or quiz source where the student may correct and learn from his or her mistakes.  What is beautiful about working with hypertext links is the fact that you don’t have to spend a lot of time counseling with the student about grammar rules (although that’s always possible in the Office Hours environment using the white board for students in more basic level grammar courses).  The student can “instantly” be transported, via hypertext, to the specific website location.  However, I advise that you go through these autotext links yourself to see what the information is before you first use them on a student’s paper.  These links are, after all, your tools for better evaluation and improvement of your students’ papers.  If you don’t know about what the links contain, then you may be giving your students incorrect information in their papers!  Many English teachers, however, will be quite familiar with the names I have given to the grammar, research and other autotext insertions in the template.  After you’ve gone through these links for yourself, then view the second tutorial on how to use the template with a student paper loaded in Word.