How to learn to use fields...

[Starkman]

Hello all,

I can create general merge documents and merge them from, say, Excel with
little problem, and I have some proficiency in creating a standard fillin
form (check boxes, text fields and dropdowns); however, when off the main
menu I go to Insert>Fields, there's a ton of fields there. None of this is
intuitive for me in order to discover how to use these fields, so I'm at a
complete loss as to how to learn about these fields. Obviously, some of them
I know, but how does one learn to use the hundreds of others?

Thanks,

Starkman

 

[Peter Jamieson]

I don't know of a site with a tutorial covering all the field types (there
are at least 75 but I don't think there are "hundreds") However, Word help
contains a description of almost every available field type - if you can
find the Table of Contents, look for Automating tasks and
Programmability|Field Types and Switches,|Using Fields|Field Reference.

Although the coverage in Help is by no means comprehensive there's enough
there to allow you to experiment, and that's probably the only way you will
find out what all these things do. You should probably also search the MS
Knowledgebase at support.microsoft.com for further details about each field
type as there are many issues to do with when fields are executed, various
gotchas, and so on.

That part of Word Help does not cover a number of field types and switches,
including
a. the types of fields used in Word's "Online Forms" (via the Forms
toolbar)
b. the CONTROL fields inserted when you insert controls from the Controll
toolbar
c. little-used field types such as ADDIN (actually the only one I can think
of right now) and the \*MergeformatINET switch
d. some older fields such as { INCLUDE } and { DATA } which have been
superseded by other fields or facilities. They may still work in one way or
another, but you shouldn't use them.

Also, you may find that the online Help for Word 2007 has very poor coverage
when it comes to fields, but I haven't checked recently.

Probably not relevant, but if you happen to be working in an international
environment with Word 97 or earlier, you may come across Word documents that
contain fields and switches with names in other languages, e.g. English {
IF } = French { SI } = German { WENN } . But as I understand it the "English
language" versions are used in all language versions from Word 2000 onwards.

Peter Jamieson

 

[Starkman]

Hey, thanks very much, Peter. And about the "hundreds"...I just figured there
were as many fields in Word as there are functions in Excel. My bad.

Thanks again! I greatly apprecaite it.

Keith