First press ALT+F9. If the information changes to a shaded field code, the Field shading option is selected. Microsoft Word does not print this shading. However, if you want to remove it or show it only when the field is selected, click Options on the Tools menu, click the View tab, and then select Never or When selected in the Field shading box.
A field is displaying the wrong information.
To update the field results, click the field, and then press F9. If the information still isn't updated, the field might be locked. To unlock the field, click it, press CTRL+SHIFT+F11, and then press F9 again.
Field codes aren't displayed, but codes still appear instead of the resulting information.
- Did you type the field characters ( { } ) on the keyboard? If so, the field won't work. To correctly insert a field, first press ALT+F9 to display field codes. Then press CTRL+F9 to insert empty field characters, and then type the instructions. You can also insert a field by clicking Field on the Insert menu.
- Because Microsoft Word formats the codes for certain fields
— such as PRIVATE, TC, and TA — as hidden text, you will only see the codes if hidden text is displayed.
Editing fields
Word beeps when I try to update the field or edit the field code.
The field might be locked. To unlock the field, click it, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+F11.
If you are working in overtype mode, Microsoft Word prevents you from typing over the field characters ( { } ). When editing field codes, make sure that overtype mode is not selected. To turn off overtype mode, press the INSERT key or double-click OVR on the status bar.
Word keeps asking me to enter information into a field. I want to turn this off.
If field codes aren't already displayed, press ALT+F9. To search for ASK or FILLIN fields in the document, click Find on the Edit menu. Click Special (If you don't see Special, click More), click Field in the list of special characters, and then click Find Next. Look for fields with the text ASK or FILLIN. These fields will include the text of the prompt that Microsoft Word displays. If you no longer want to enter the information that Word is asking for, delete the field from your document.
If the field is an ASK field, you should also search for the bookmark name specified in the ASK field. For example, if the ASK field is { ASK Client "Enter the client's name: " }, look for bookmarks like "Client" and fields like { REF Client }. You can either unlink the bookmarks or fields, which will cause the field results to remain, press CTRL+F11 to lock them, or you can delete them (To unlink a field, click the field, and on the Edit menu click Links and then click Break Link). If you delete the ASK fields and plan to unlink the bookmarks or REF fields, you should unlink all bookmarks and REF fields before updating fields in your document.
I don't see the field code in the Field dialog box.
Click Field Codes in the Field dialog box to display the field code and other options. Once clicked, this button changes to Hide Codes. You can switch between the two types of display.
Changing the text wrapping of an embedded object removed the formatting switches.
When you add a formatting switch to the EMBED field code and then change the text wrapping of the object, the formatting switch may be removed.
If this occurs, you can manually add the formatting switch back to the field.
Printing field information
If you inserted the date or time by using the Date and Time command on the Insert menu, Microsoft Word will not update the date or time you inserted unless you chose to update them automatically. To have Word automatically update the date and time, click Date and Time on the Insert menu, and then select the Update automatically check box. When you click the field and press F9, Word displays the current date and time.
If your date is inserted as a field, but it hasn't been updated, it may not display the correct date. To update the field, click it, and then press F9. To have the date automatically updated when you print, click Options on the Tools menu, and then click the Print tab. Under Printing options, select the Update fields check box.
To track when a document was created, last printed, or last saved, click Field on the Insert menu, click Date and time in the Categories box, and then insert a CREATEDATE, PRINTDATE, or SAVEDATE field. You can use options with these fields to print the date, the time, or both.
Field codes are printed instead of results.
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On the Tools menu, click Options.
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Click the Print tab, and then clear the Field codes check box.