Fields don't update upon opening

[wal]

Word 2007

The Help file says, and I quote: "By default, Word automatically
updates fields when a document is opened."

This does not appear to be true. For example, SAVEDATE does not
update upon opening. Neither does "DOCPROPERTY characters" (which I
inserted simply to test whether fields were updating). The fields are
not locked with Ctrl-F11; they do update when I press F9.

Is there a setting under Word Options that causes the asserted default
to actually be the default? Or is the Help file simply wrong?

 

[Terry Farrell]

I don't know where you read that but it isn't true. You can set links to
update on opening and you can set fields to update on printing.

 

[WhiteRat]

The Help file is simply wrong. This confused me for a while too. From what
I've learned from this newsgroup, there are a couple of "default" actions
that will update all fields in a document.

1. Print Preview
2. Printing the document
2. Converting ("printing") to PDF format

There may be more, and if so I'm sure the MVPs will let us know. What I have
adopted is to Ctrl-A to select all, and then hit F9, which forces an update
to all fields. I do this periodically, depending on how many additions I
have made that will end up in the Table of Contents, or are dependent on
other content that changes as the document evolves, such as cross
references.

I learned the hard way that the best time to find out that TOCs, links etc.
are broken is not after I have printed it out, or converted it to a PDF, but
before. Hope this helps.