Troubleshooting Fields - "One or more fields could not be updated" Problem

[Bob]

My doc (from a predecessor) is not successfully updating all fields
when invoked, getting the error in the status bar.

Background:

1. Doc is larger
2. Auto Numbering of TOC, Tables, Figures and custom sequential
numbered fields
3. Doc has about 30 simple Visio diagrams, embedded, Figures
4. Doc has cross-references to Paragraphs, Tables, Figures
5. Am periodically using Microsoft provided 'striphiddenbookmarks'
Macro to keep numbers of hidden bookmarks down from repeated TOC
updates for draft hardcopy reviews

Current state:

- If I simply try to update the List of Figures or Tables, it runs
without errors.
- If I try to update the TOC or the entire document (CTRL-A), I get
the "one or more fields could not be updated" error message in the
status bar
- I can find no (Error!...) messages in the document when scanning
through it.

Questions:

a. Is there any freebie tool or tip to help me FIND which field is not
being updated?
b. If I can't see anything wrong - should I even worry about this?
(TOC and page numbering looks fine)

Thanks in advance for reading and any feedback. (Word 2003)

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Bob,

The "simplest" explanation for the message you're seeing is that a field
has been explicitly locked. You could try Ctrl+A, Ctr+Shift+F11 to
explicitly unlock all the fields and see if that makes any difference.

Another possible explanation would be that you have a set of nested
fields somewhere (like an IF) and one of the nested fields is throwing an
error or has a false context. If the document has always been doing this,
then it's probably not a problem, if you say everything looks correct...

The last possibility that occurs to me is that a field code has been
damaged.

And no, I know of no way to determine which field(set) may be causing the
problem if this is being caused by the TOC update. The TOC itself
contains nested fields (PAGEREF and Hyperlink), could be there's
somethign wrong in there. If you delete the TOC then insert a new one
(without running the macro tool you mention), does the problem go away?

My doc (from a predecessor) is not successfully updating all fields
when invoked, getting the error in the status bar.

Background:

1. Doc is larger
2. Auto Numbering of TOC, Tables, Figures and custom sequential
numbered fields
3. Doc has about 30 simple Visio diagrams, embedded, Figures
4. Doc has cross-references to Paragraphs, Tables, Figures
5. Am periodically using Microsoft provided 'striphiddenbookmarks'
Macro to keep numbers of hidden bookmarks down from repeated TOC
updates for draft hardcopy reviews

Current state:

- If I simply try to update the List of Figures or Tables, it runs
without errors.
- If I try to update the TOC or the entire document (CTRL-A), I get
the "one or more fields could not be updated" error message in the
status bar
- I can find no (Error!...) messages in the document when scanning
through it.

Questions:

a. Is there any freebie tool or tip to help me FIND which field is not
being updated?
b. If I can't see anything wrong - should I even worry about this?
(TOC and page numbering looks fine)

Thanks in advance for reading and any feedback. (Word 2003)

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister
http://www.word.mvps.org

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