If you have many field codes in your Word document that you do not intend to update, you can convert them to plain text. To do this, you will need to find your fields easily by enabling field shading.
This post shows you how to turn field shading on and off in Word 2003, Word 2007, Word 2010, Word 2013, and Word 2016. We will also show you the steps to convert fields to plain text, which are the same in all three versions.
Turn on and off field shading in Word 2007 through 2016
The procedure for turning field shading on or off in Word 2007 is essentially the same as in Word 2010–2016. We’ll show you the steps for Word 2007 and point out some of the differences for newer versions of Word. First, click the “Office” button.
Click the Word Options button at the bottom of the Office menu.
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To access Word options in Word 2010 through 2016, click the File tab.
On the File tab, click Options.
The rest of the steps are the same for all versions of Word. In the Word Options dialog box, click More in the list on the left.
Select the Show field codes instead of their values ??check box to display the actual code that is used to generate the field value. Please note that you cannot hide the field completely. Word will display either the code or the results, and you can use this checkbox to switch between them. You can also use the keyboard shortcut ALT + F9 to switch between field results and field codes.
Scroll down to the Show document content section. Select the desired option from the Field Shading drop-down list. The options perform the same functions as for Word 2003 above.
Click OK on the Word Options dialog box to accept the changes and close the dialog box.
Again, if you selected Always, the field shading is displayed even if the cursor is not in the field.
You can switch field codes in the same way as described above for Word 2003.
Convert fields to plain text
Converting a field to plain text is the same in all three versions of Word discussed in this post. Just place your cursor in the field you want to convert to text and press Ctrl + Shift + F9. The field is converted to text as the last value it contained when it was the field.
If you change your mind and want to convert the text back to a field, you can undo the Break Fields action by clicking the Undo button on the Quick Access Toolbar or by pressing Ctrl + Z.
If you want to convert all your fields to text, you can select all the text in the document as described earlier in this post (Ctrl + A) and then press Ctrl + Shift + F9. After that, your document will no longer have fields.
Update fields
If you decide that you no longer need to update the field and you want to convert it to text, you can easily do that. However, you should first update the field to make sure the field value is up to date. To do this, in Word 2003, right-click the field and choose Update Field from the pop-up menu.
NOTE. You can also press F9 to update the selected field. If you want to update all the fields in the document, press Ctrl + A to select all text in the document, including the margins, and press F9. All fields in the document will be updated.
To update a field in Word 2007-2016, place your cursor in that field and either click the Update button that appears above the field, or press F9.
NOTE. You can update all fields in the document in the same way as described above for Word 2003.
Turn on and off field shading in Word 2003
To turn field shading on or off in Word 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu.
The Options dialog box opens. To turn off field shading, select Never from the Field Shading drop-down list. To keep a field shaded consistently, even when no field is selected or the cursor is not in the field, select Always from the Field Shading drop-down list.
This allows you to see your fields in the document at a glance. If you only want to see the field shade when the field is selected, or if the cursor is in the field, select On Selection from the Field Shade drop-down list. This is the default option when you install Word.
To hide field codes in a Word document, simply uncheck the box just above the shaded field called Field Codes.
Click OK on the Options dialog box to accept the changes and close the dialog box.
If you selected Always, you will notice that the fields are highlighted even if the cursor is not in the field.
If you see, for example, what looks like a code in a date field and not a date, that means that the field codes are displayed, not the field value. To view the value of a field, right-click the field and choose Toggle Field Codes from the pop-up menu. After that, you will see the date like in the image above.
If some or all of your fields display field codes, you can display the values ??of all fields by pressing Ctrl + A to select all text in the document, right-clicking anywhere in the text and choosing Toggle Field Codes from the pop-up menu.
You may have to select this option twice until your field values ??are displayed. All fields are converted to the same state, even though some display field codes and some displayed values.
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