Special Edition Using Microsoft® Word 2000

Inserting a Field Using Field Characters

Sometimes you know exactly what kind of field you need, and the field you need is a very simple one. For example, if you want to insert a page count within your document text, the field you need is simple:

{ NUMPAGES }

In such a case, why bother with dialog boxes? Enter the field directly into your document. To do so, press Ctrl+F9. Word places two curly brackets around your insertion point, and colors them gray to indicate that you're in a field (see Figure 27.4). These curly brackets are called field characters.

Figure 27.4. When you press Ctrl+F9 to insert a field, the field appears as two curly brackets; by default, these are highlighted in gray.

Note

You can't insert field characters by pressing ...