Microsoft® Word 2007 Bible

Chapter 21. Field Guide

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Understanding field codes

• Field basics

• The Field dialog box

• Field keys

• Field syntax

• Field categories

You've seen fields several times in this book, but they've usually been mentioned only in passing. They've been used to insert dates and page numbers, to number equations, and a few other things. So far, however, we haven't looked at them head on in their radiant splendor, or under a magnifying glass.

In Word 2007, much has changed from previous versions. A number of tasks that required fields in earlier versions of Word can now be performed more efficiently and elegantly using content controls. If you work with complex documents in compatibility mode, you are much more likely to encounter fields than when working in Word 2007 format.

Moreover, a number of linking tasks that required the use of fields in past Word versions now can be performed in ways that are more robust (harder to break) than in past versions of Word, so when you insert links you're less likely to see field codes than before. Instead, much is done behind the scenes using XML technology. Word provides other tools for working with and managing links, such as Edit Links to Files in Office

Yet, some Word 2007 features—dates, page numbers, mail merge, tables of contents, indexes, and some others—still do rely on fields, so fields aren't ready for the archeologists quite yet.

A number of Word ...