Word 2003 Fields in [Brackets] 1

[DougP]

I have a Word Document that has fields inside of brackets like so [PROJECT_NAME]{PRIVATE}

There is not a mail merge tool bar. What does this document look at to get the data?
What does the word Private do inside the curly brackets?

We found a few of these documents that someone made a few years ago and did not finish.

TIA


DougP, MCP, A+

 

[fumei]

In my experience that {PRIVATE} usually comes from WordPerfect files. Is this possible?

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[DougP]

They are runing a old DOS version of Word perfect to do it now. So Yes I guess the original document came from WordPerfect? I also see these Word docs are Templates .dot if that matters. I am in charge of making something that ends up as a Word doc and someone found these looking for something else. So they suggested I look at them. It appears someone started this a while ago and I don't know whats left to be finished or what. Did it work or not???? There is an Access datasbe in the same folder with these Word templetes but the field names in none of the tables match the ones in the Word doc exactly.

DougP, MCP, A+

 

[fumei]

AFAIK, there is nothing you can do with the {PRIVATE} field. Yup, they come from WP for DOS. What Word is saying is basically..."Ummmmm, I have no idea what this is, so I will block it into a private 'field'...and ignore it."

Unfortunately, the darn field is there. Maybe someone else can suggest something, but unless you have the original WP files - not these converted files - there is not much you can do. I just delete the {PRIVATE} fields.

Perhaps if you describe in more detail what you are trying to get out of them.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[macropod]

Hi Doug,

From the Word Help file (always a good place to start):

Field codes: Private field
{ PRIVATE }

Stores data for documents converted from other file formats. Word inserts a PRIVATE field when converting file formats; the field contains data needed for converting a document back to its original file format.

A PRIVATE field is formatted as hidden text and doesn't affect the document layout in Word. To hide a PRIVATE field, don't display hidden text.

Cheers

[MS MVP - Word]

 

[DougP]

What about the other fields there are 20 some odd.
They look like this [field_name] in brackets and this is a .DOT. How to I turn them on or merge with something else. OR ???
I have done a little research and most people say highlight the field name and type over it with the pertinent data. Is that the way to use them?

TIA

DougP, MCP, A+

 

[macropod]

Hi Doug,

If you're seeing Word field codes, they'll be in the form of a pair of braces (ie '{ }') with text in between. To dispplay their results instead of the coding, press Alt-F9.

If you're seeing some text formatted as hidden inside (hidden) square backets next to a {PRIVATE} field, then that's the text assocated with the PRIVATE field. You han hide it via Tools|Options|View and unchecking 'hidden text' in the 'Formatting marks' panel. If the 'hidden text is printing out and you don't want it to, use Tools|Options|Print and uncheck 'hidden text' in the 'include with document panel.

As to why {PRIVATE} fields would appear in a document template (.dot file), I can only suggest that the template was created from a document (or template) that had been converted from another platform.

Cheers

[MS MVP - Word]

 

[DougP]

Thank you macropod
have a star

DougP, MCP, A+